Anopheles darlingi Root is the major vector of human malaria in the Neotropics and has been considered to be the sole malaria vector in French Guiana. The presence of other potential vectors suggests that malaria may be transmitted by other species under certain conditions. From 2006-2011, all anopheline specimens collected from 11 localities were assayed to determine if the Plasmodium circumsp...

Plasmodium sporozoites make a remarkable journey from the mosquito midgut to the mammalian liver. The sporozoite's major surface protein, circumsporozoite protein (CSP), is a multifunctional protein required for sporozoite development and likely mediates several steps of this journey. In this study, we show that CSP has two conformational states, an adhesive conformation in which the C-terminal...

Antibodies to the pre-erythrocytic antigens, circumsporozoite protein (CSP), thrombospondin-related adhesive protein (TRAP) and liver-stage antigen 1, have been measured in field studies of semi-immune adults and shown to correlate with protection from Plasmodium falciparum infection. A mathematical model is formulated to estimate the probability of sporozoite infection as a function of antibod...

Intramuscular immunization with a naked DNA plasmid expressing the Plasmodium yoelii circumsporozoite protein (pPyCSP) protects mice against challenge with P. yoelii sporozoites. This protection can be improved either by coadministration of a plasmid expressing murine GM-CSF (pGMCSF) or by boosting with recombinant poxvirus expressing the PyCSP. We now report that combining these two strategies...

Immunization with radiation attenuated Plasmodium sporozoites (RAS) elicits sterile protective immunity against sporozoite challenge in murine models and in humans. Similarly to RAS, the genetically attenuated sporozoites (GAPs) named uis3(-), uis4(-) and P36p(-) have arrested growth during the liver stage development, and generate a powerful protective immune response in mice. We compared the ...

Malaria remains one of the world’s worst health problems, which causes 216 million new cases and approximately 655,000 deaths every year WHO World Malaria Report, 2011. Malaria transmission to the mammalian host is initiated through a mosquito bite that delivers sporozoites into the vertebrate host. The injected sporozoites are selectively targeted to liver which is the first obligatory step in...

Article history: Received 21 October 2014 Accepted 21 October 2014 Available online 23 October 2014 most advanced malaria vaccine candidate, the RTS,S vaccine based on the P. falciparum circumsporozoite (CS) protein, has gone through extensive testing in Africa where a recent phase 3 trial showed a 27 and 46% protection against clinical malaria in African infant and children respectively but un...