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The N-terminus of Plasmodium falciparum Circumsporozoite Protein Contains Three Non-Overlapping Murine B-cell Epitope Regions

Beutler, N.; Garcia, E.; Lai, Y.-C.; Ndihokubwayo, J.; Gambuzza, K.; Zhao, J.; Burton, D.; Rogers, T.

2024-01-20 immunology
10.1101/2024.01.18.574923 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The generation of an anti-malarial vaccine that produces broad, potent, and durable responses is highly desirable to control the burden of Plasmodium falciparum disease. Current vaccines have offered modest efficacy ranging from 50%-70%, likely associated with antibody responses that are relatively short lived and strain specific. Currently approved malaria vaccines, RTS,S and R21, target the repeat region and C-terminal region of Plasmodium falciparum CSP, leaving the N-terminal region of CSP neglected as a target for protective immunogen design. Here, we isolate and express a panel of memory B-cell derived N-terminal CSP-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from mice immunized with an N-terminal CSP specific immunogen. The characterization of N-terminal specific mAbs including peptide walking and affinity experiments indicate that these antibodies target three distinct sites within the N-terminus of CSP. Site ntCSP-A contains the Region I (RI) cleavage site, which has been previously defined, whereas the remaining two sites are in previously undescribed locations upstream of RI, termed ntCSP-B and ntCSP-C.

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