Heparin, a sulfated glycoconjugate, reportedly inhibits the blood-stage growth of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Elucidation of the inhibitory mechanism is valuable for developing novel invasion-blocking treatments based on heparin. Merozoite surface protein 1 has been reported as a candidate target of heparin; however, to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved, we cha...

Plasmodium falciparum invasion of human red blood cells (RBCs) is an intricate process requiring a number of distinct ligand-receptor interactions at the merozoite-erythrocyte interface. Merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1), a highly abundant ligand coating the merozoite surface in all species of malaria parasites, is essential for RBC invasion and considered a leading candidate for inclusion in ...

BACKGROUND Plasmodium falciparum the main causative agent of malaria is an important public health vector. With the use of PCR, its genetic diversity has been extensively studied with dearth information from Nigeria. METHODS In this study, 100 P. falciparum strains merozoite surface protein 1(msp-1), merozoite surface protein 2 (msp-2) and Glutamate rich protein (Glurp) from Ogun State Genera...

Babesia bovis merozoites are exposed to antibodies during the extraerythrocytic phase, and surface polypeptides bearing exposed epitopes are possible immunogens. Monoclonal antibodies reactive with the merozoite surface bind either immunodominant epitopes expressed diffusely on the merozoite surface or, alternatively, epitopes expressed in a polar pattern. Epitopes expressed diffusely on the im...

The Babesia bovis merozoite surface antigen 2 (MSA-2) locus encodes four proteins, MSA-2a(1), -2a(2), -2b, and -2c. With the use of specific antibodies, each MSA-2 protein was shown to be expressed on the surface of live extracellular merozoites and coexpression on single merozoites was confirmed. Individual antisera against MSA-2a, MSA-2b, and MSA-2c significantly inhibited merozoite invasion ...

Merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2) is an abundant glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein of Plasmodium falciparum, which is a potential component of a malaria vaccine. As all forms of MSP2 can be categorized into two allelic families, a vaccine containing two representative forms of MSP2 may overcome the problem of diversity in this highly polymorphic protein. Monomeric recombinant...