BACKGROUND There are few published studies on Plasmodium falciparum genotypes in peripheral, placental and umbilical cord blood in areas characterised by unstable malaria transmission. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate P. falciparum genotypes in matched peripheral, placental and umbilical cord blood in eastern Sudan. Thick blood smears and P. falciparum merozoite sur...

Overcoming antigenic variation is one of the major challenges in the development of an effective vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum, a causative agent of human malaria. Inclusion of multiple Ag variants in subunit vaccine candidates is one strategy that has aimed to overcome this problem for the leading blood-stage malaria vaccine targets, that is, merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) and apic...

A case of quinine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria, followed by a postmalaria neurological syndrome and a recurrence episode, is described. Genetic characterization of the P. falciparum isolate obtained by analysis of msp1 and msp2 amplicons revealed the coexistence of two genotypes causing the first malaria episode and the presence of a unique isolate responsible for the recurrence.

BACKGROUND Antibodies, particularly cytophilic IgG subclasses, with specificity for asexual blood stage antigens of Plasmodium falciparum, are thought to play an important role in acquired immunity to malaria. Evaluating such responses in longitudinal sero-epidemiological field studies, allied to increasing knowledge of the immunological mechanisms associated with anti-malarial protection, will...

BACKGROUND The carboxy-terminus of the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP1) of Plasmodium falciparum has been implicated as a target of protective immunity. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two recombinant proteins from the carboxy-terminus of MSP1, the 42 kD fused to GST (bMSP1(42)) and the 19 kD (yMSP1(19)), were expressed in Escherichia coli and secreted from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. To ...

Malaria can present itself as an uncomplicated or severe disease. We have here studied the quantity and quality of antibody responses against merozoite antigens, as well as multiplicity of infection (MOI), in children from Uganda. We found higher levels of IgG antibodies toward erythrocyte-binding antigen EBA181, MSP2 of Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 and FC27 (MSP2-3D7/FC27), and apical membrane an...

The merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) is a relatively abundant protein which has been found in all Plasmodium species examined [1,2]. MSP-1 is synthesized as a high molecular mass ( 200 kDa) precursor protein which is proteolytically processed into smaller fragments. Proteolytic processing of MSP-1 is a two-step procedure characterized by primary and secondary processing events [3]. Primary p...