Studies On The Protein Profiles Of Gamma Ray Induced Blood Stage Of Plasmodium berghei For Developing Candidate Of Malaria Vaccine

Ionizing radiation is a known physical agent that had been widely used to attenuate the invasive blood stage of malaria parasite, merozoite, in vaccine materials development. In this study, we determined the protein profiles of blood stage Plasmodium berghei of ANKA strain post gamma irradiation. Parasitized bloods obtained from various percentage of parasite density, days post infection, doses (125, 150 and 175 Gy) and dose rates (380.2 and 640.4 Gy/hour) of gamma ray for irradiation and species of rodent parasites were separated on 10% SDSPAGE gels under reducing conditions after boiled for 5 minutes. We found that protein profile of infected blood was different from uninfected blood with higher number of bands in infected samples indicating some exported proteins to the host cells for pathology in parasitized erythrocyte. Higher dose and dose rate of irradiation resulted in more protein bands on acrylamide gel. Based on further analysis 150 Gy and 380 Gy/hour was the most appropriate dose and dose rate to develop vaccine candidate. There was no difference in protein profiles of non irradiated parasited blood in days post infection, however the profile was depended on the percentage of parasitemia. Protein concentration that was analyzed by Lowry method was decreased with increasing of irradiation dose. Protein profile of P. berghei was different with those of other species of rodent plasmodia. It is concluded that profile of protein was dependent on the percentage of parasitemia i.e. depended on the composition of parasite’s life cycle stages, and dose and dose rate of irradiation. Protein profile was also affected by some technical factors that will be discussed furthermore in the paper.