Differential antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum-derived B-cell epitopes induced by diepitope multiple antigen peptides (MAP) containing different T-cell epitopes

• Published in: Vaccine 2004-12, Vol.23 (3), p.343-352
• Main Authors: Vasconcelos, Nina-Maria, Siddique, Abu Bakar, Ahlborg, Niklas, Berzins, Klavs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies, Protozoan - blood; Antibodies, Protozoan - classification; Antigens, Protozoan - immunology; Applied microbiology; B-cell epitope; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Proliferation; Cells, Cultured; Clostridium tetani; Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte - immunology; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - immunology; Female; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microbiology; Multiple antigen peptide; Plasmodium falciparum; Plasmodium falciparum - immunology; Species Specificity; T-cell epitope; T-Lymphocytes - cytology; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Tetanus Toxin - immunology; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects)
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.06.003

Epitopes of universal character are needed when designing subunit vaccines against infectious diseases such as malaria. We have compared the immunogenicity of B-cell epitopes from the Plasmodium falciparum antigen repeats DPNANPNV (PfCS protein) and VTEEI (Pf332) when assembled with four different universal T-cell epitopes in diepitope multiple antigen peptides (MAP). T-epitopes employed were from P. falciparum antigens (CS.T3, [T *] 4 and EBP3) or from the Clostridium tetani toxin (P2). In association with either of the T-epitopes, the genetic unresponsiveness to the B-epitopes was successfully bypassed. Our results show that the immunogenicity of a T-epitope alone does not necessarily predict the ability of the T-epitope to provide T-cell help when combined with other epitopes in an immunogen. Further, the nature of the immune responses in terms of total IgG antibodies and their subclass distribution, T-cell proliferation and IFN-γ production, varied with the T-epitope and mouse strain, which may indicate the need for inclusion of a combination of different universal T-epitopes in a future malaria subunit vaccine.