The discovery that the Duffy antigen was a promiscuous chemokine binding protein was entirely serendipitous and resulted from research begun at Genentech in 1991. The company had a strong interest in chemokines because of their role in disease and this was furthered by the recent cloning of two chemokine receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2. Both were IL-8 (CXCL8) receptors expressed on immune cells, prim...

Thrombospondin Related Adhesive Protein (TRAP) is a transmembrane parasite molecule responsible in sporozoite-host interactions. This molecule is one of the most promising vaccine candidates against the pre-erythrocytic forms of malaria. In the present study, a gene encoding the Plasmodium vivax TRAP (PvTRAP) was expressed in Escherichia coli (M15 strain) using the expression plasmid pQE30. The...

Duffy-binding like (DBL) domains are common to two different families of malaria proteins that are involved in parasite invasion of erythrocytes or cytoadhesion of infected erythrocytes. DBL domain crystal structures have recently been solved for two different erythrocyte binding ligands, EBA-175 and the Plasmodium knowlesi alpha Duffy binding protein. These structures reveal different mechanis...

We report here the isolation and genomic organization of the orthologous mouse Duffy gene, named Dfy. It is a single copy gene located in chromosome 1 in a region homologous to the human Duffy gene (FY). Sequence analyses indicate that Dfy consists of two exons: exon 1 of 55 nucleotides, which encodes 7 amino acid residues; and exon 2 of 1038 nucleotides, which encodes 327 residues. The single ...

Malaria is an acute infectious disease caused by the protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. The antigens of the Duffy Blood Group System, in addition to incompatibilities in transfusions and hemolytic disease of the newborn, are of great interest in medicine due to their association with the invasion of red blood cells by the parasite Plasmodium vivax. For invasions to occur an interaction between t...

The Duffy blood group system is of clinical and biological significance. Antibodies to Duffy antigens are responsible for some cases of transfusion incompatibility and newborn hemolytic disease. The Duffy protein is a receptor for the Plasmodium vivax erythrocyte-binding protein and is also a receptor for various chemokines (thus renamed Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines [DARC]). The two Du...

Resistance to Plasmodium vivax blood-stage infection has been widely recognised to result from absence of the Duffy (Fy) blood group from the surface of red blood cells (RBCs) in individuals of African descent. Interestingly, recent studies from different malaria-endemic regions have begun to reveal new perspectives on the association between Duffy gene polymorphism and P. vivax malaria. In Pap...

The erythrocyte chemokine receptor is a cell surface protein that binds a wide array of chemokines including interleukin-8 (IL-8), melanoma growth stimulating activity (MGSA), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and RANTES (Regulated on Activation, Normal T Expressed and Secreted). This protein has also been identified as the Duffy blood group antigen, a cell surface receptor for the malari...

Plasmodium vivax and the related simian malarial parasite P. knowlesi use the Duffy blood group antigen as a receptor to invade human erythrocytes and region II of the parasite ligands for binding to this erythrocyte receptor. Here, we identify the peptide within the Duffy blood group antigen of human and rhesus erythrocytes to which the P. vivax and P. knowlesi ligands bind. Peptides from the ...