School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Identification of Plasmodium Proteins from Children’s Field Isolates Targeted by Immune Sera Using a Proteomics Approach
Poster Number
262
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
3-2016
Abstract
Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium species. Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly parasite species, and most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. That is because children are more susceptible to severe malaria which occurs when infections are complicated by serious organ failures or abnormalities in the patient's blood or metabolism. However, as children grow older and experienced repeated attacks of malaria, they develop immunity that protects them from disease. This goal of project was to identify surface proteins from children’s parasite isolates adapted to in-vitro culture that are recognized by children’s immune sera. This was achieved by (1) identifying gene products recognized by adult’s immune sera and by children’s immune sera respectively, (2) comparing gene products from 2 field isolates collected from malaria infected children that are recognized by immune sera, and (3) determining the function of the identified proteins by Gene Ontology. After data analysis, 114 and 46 proteins were immune-precipitated by immune sera from children and adult respectively. Of those, 61 proteins were annotated as exported conserved membrane proteins of unknown function, which may be immunogenic. This research is still ongoing, mainly relating antibodies to the identified membrane proteins with protection from disease. In addition, the data will be analyzed by de novo sequencing to identify Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) variants, because they are recognized as variable proteins that are very important to Plasmodium falciparum virulence.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Open Access
1
Identification of Plasmodium Proteins from Children’s Field Isolates Targeted by Immune Sera Using a Proteomics Approach
Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium species. Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly parasite species, and most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. That is because children are more susceptible to severe malaria which occurs when infections are complicated by serious organ failures or abnormalities in the patient's blood or metabolism. However, as children grow older and experienced repeated attacks of malaria, they develop immunity that protects them from disease. This goal of project was to identify surface proteins from children’s parasite isolates adapted to in-vitro culture that are recognized by children’s immune sera. This was achieved by (1) identifying gene products recognized by adult’s immune sera and by children’s immune sera respectively, (2) comparing gene products from 2 field isolates collected from malaria infected children that are recognized by immune sera, and (3) determining the function of the identified proteins by Gene Ontology. After data analysis, 114 and 46 proteins were immune-precipitated by immune sera from children and adult respectively. Of those, 61 proteins were annotated as exported conserved membrane proteins of unknown function, which may be immunogenic. This research is still ongoing, mainly relating antibodies to the identified membrane proteins with protection from disease. In addition, the data will be analyzed by de novo sequencing to identify Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) variants, because they are recognized as variable proteins that are very important to Plasmodium falciparum virulence.
Comments
Presented at: GW Research Days 2016