Structural Modifications Enable Conserved Peptides to Fit into MHC Molecules thus Inducing Protection against Malaria

✍ Scribed by Manuel Elkin Patarroyo; Gladys Cifuentes; Luis Eduardo Vargas; Jaiver Rosas

• Book ID: 101822820
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 179 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4227
• DOI: 10.1002/cbic.200400116

✦ Synopsis

Developing a rational methodology for obtaining vaccines against P. falciparum malaria (the disease's most lethal form, afflicting more than 250 million people around the world per year and killing about 2 million of them) [1] has become one of the main objectives of public health authorities around the world. [2] A multiantigenic vaccine, containing molecules from the parasite's different developmental stages, is required due to the parasite's remarkable complexity and adaptability. [3] The first such approach (the SPf66 synthetic vaccine), [4,5] which used peptides from molecules from different parasite stages, conferred limited protective efficacy in Aotus monkey studies and in field trials carried out on human volunteers around the world. [6]