Microarray analyses reveal strain-specific antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 variants following natural infection and vaccination
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Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 3;10(1):3952
Vaccines based on Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) have failed due to extensive polymorphism in AMA1. To assess the strain-specificity of antibody responses to malaria infection and AMA1 vaccination, we designed protein and peptide microarrays representing hundreds of unique AMA1 variants. Following clinical malaria episodes, children had short-lived, sequence-independent increases in average whole-protein seroreactivity, as well as strain-specific responses to peptides representing diverse epitopes.
Objectors to applications in public health assert that because it is impossible to obtain informed consent that the technology is inadequate. What a remarkable conclusion!
In the early 1990s, when scientists first came up with a radical new idea to engineer mosquitoes that would no longer be capable of transmitting pathogens, some thought of an even more fantastic application. Use mosquitoes to vaccinate people. Silence followed until now...