• Vaccine Name: P. berghei CS Protein Subunit Vaccine
• Target Pathogen: Plasmodium spp.
• Target Disease: Malaria
• Vaccine Ontology ID: VO_0011549
• Type: Subunit vaccine
• Status: Research
• Antigen: A tandem repeat of the B cell immunodominant repeat epitope (DPPPPNPN)2D of the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei circumsporozoite protein (P4c-Mal) (Kaba et al., 2009).
• CS from P. berghei str. ANKA gene engineering:
  • Type: Recombinant protein preparation
  • Description:
  • Detailed Gene Information: Click Here.
• Immunization Route: Intraperitoneal injection (i.p.)

Mouse Response

• Host Strain: BALB/c, C57BL/6
• Vaccination Protocol: Mice were randomly divided into groups of 5 or 10 and immunized i.p. three times at 14-day intervals. Where indicated, a positive control group was immunized with irradiated P. berghei sporozoites (Kaba et al., 2009).
• Challenge Protocol: P. berghei sporozoites (ANKA strain), maintained by cyclical transmission in mice and Anopheles stephensi, were dissected from mosquitoes 21–23 days after their infectious blood meal and used within 6 h. Fourteen days after the final immunization or at other specific times on long-term memory experiments, mice were challenged with a lethal dose of live P. berghei sporozoites by i.v. inoculation. C57BL/6, MHC KO, and nude mice were injected with 1000 sporozoites and BALB/c mice were injected with 4000 sporozoites per mouse (Kaba et al., 2009).
• Efficacy: More than 95% of mice immunized with P4c-Mal, both with and without Montanide ISA-720, or R-PbCSP in Montanide ISA-720 did not develop any parasitemia and thus showed complete protection against challenge with viable sporozoites (Fig. 2B). This ability to prevent parasitemia and thus prevent malaria following sporozoite challenge is equivalent to what is only achieved with the whole, irradiated sporozoite immunization regime. In contrast, as few as 5% of animals administered saline, saline and Montanide ISA-720, or R-PbCSP in saline did not develop parasites and survived until 11 days post challenge. No animal was observed with blood stage parasites that did not die naturally or was killed according to protocol. These results show that immunization with P4c-Mal had a significant ability to induce a protective immune response in the presence as well as in the absence of adjuvant (Kaba et al., 2009).