Structure guided malaria vaccine targeting an essential protein-protein interaction | New Voices in Infection Biology

If you are interested in joining the seminar, please contact: vseminars@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de

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Talk abstract:

Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum remains one the deadliest infectious diseases infecting over 200 million people resulting in 400,000 deaths every year, mostly in young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical disease is caused by the exponentially growing parasites within the red blood cells (RBCs). My lab studies the molecular mechanisms that mediate host cell invasion with the goal of identifying novel antimalarial/vaccine targets. This talk will focus on a protein-protein interaction (AMA1-RON2) that is essential for parasite entry into RBCs. It is a unique adaptation where both ligand (AMA1) and receptor (RON2) are provided by the parasite. However, this may well be an Achilles heel for the parasite. We recently demonstrated that antibodies targeting this interaction blocks parasite invasion, the gateway to disease. Applying a structure-guided antigen design approach we have now developed a strain-transcending vaccine to overcome polymorphisms in this antigen. Interestingly, natural malaria exposure induces protective antibodies that target this interaction. I will discuss the implications of these findings for developing a durable malaria vaccine.