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Plant expression and characterization of the transmission-blocking vaccine candidate PfGAP50

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Biotechnology, December 2015
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Title
Plant expression and characterization of the transmission-blocking vaccine candidate PfGAP50
Published in
BMC Biotechnology, December 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12896-015-0225-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Veronique Beiss, Holger Spiegel, Alexander Boes, Matthias Scheuermayer, Andreas Reimann, Stefan Schillberg, Rainer Fischer

Abstract

Despite the limited success after decades of intensive research and development efforts, vaccination still represents the most promising strategy to significantly reduce the disease burden in malaria endemic regions. Besides the ultimate goal of inducing sterile protection in vaccinated individuals, the prevention of transmission by so-called transmission blocking vaccines (TBVs) is being regarded as an important feature of an efficient malaria eradication strategy. Recently, Plasmodium falciparum GAP50 (PfGAP50), a 44.6 kDa transmembrane protein that forms an essential part of the invasion machinery (glideosome) multi-protein complex, has been proposed as novel potential transmission-blocking candidate. Plant-based expression systems combine the advantages of eukaryotic expression with a up-scaling potential and a good product safety profile suitable for vaccine production. In this study we investigated the feasibility to use the transient plant expression to produce PfGAP50 suitable for the induction of parasite specific inhibitory antibodies. We performed the transient expression of recombinant PfGAP50 in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves using endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) and plastid targeting. After IMAC-purification the protein yield and integrity was investigated by SDS-PAGE and Western Blot. Rabbit immune IgG derived by the immunization with the plastid-targeted variant of PfGAP50 was analyzed by immune fluorescence assay (IFA) and zygote inhibition assay (ZIA). PfGAP50 could be produced in both subcellular compartments at different yields IMAC (Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography) purification from extract yielded up to 4.1 μg/g recombinant protein per fresh leaf material for ER-retarded and16.2 μg/g recombinant protein per fresh leave material for plasmid targeted PfGAP50, respectively. IgG from rabbit sera generated by immunization with the recombinant protein specifically recognized different parasite stages in immunofluorescence assay. Furthermore up to 55 % inhibition in an in vitro zygote inhibition assay could be achieved using PfGAP50-specific rabbit immune IgG. The results of this study demonstrate that the plant-produced PfGAP50 is functional regarding the presentation of inhibitory epitopes and could be considered as component of a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine formulation.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 33 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 33 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 7 21%
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 18%
Student > Bachelor 3 9%
Student > Master 3 9%
Student > Postgraduate 2 6%
Other 5 15%
Unknown 7 21%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 21%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4 12%
Medicine and Dentistry 3 9%
Immunology and Microbiology 3 9%
Computer Science 2 6%
Other 6 18%
Unknown 8 24%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 December 2015.
All research outputs
#20,297,343
of 22,834,308 outputs
Outputs from BMC Biotechnology
#846
of 935 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#324,860
of 387,568 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Biotechnology
#18
of 19 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,834,308 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 935 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.8. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.