1.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 84(9): 3014-8, 1987 May.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-3554251
ABSTRACT
Groups of Aotus (owl) monkeys were immunized with either the Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface-coat precursor protein and its processing fragments or a complex of high molecular mass rhoptry proteins and challenged with a lethal infection of the homologous P. falciparum Uganda Palo Alto (FUP) strain. No patent parasitemia could be detected on thick blood films of monkeys immunized with the merozoite surface antigens; however, only one of three monkeys immunized with the rhoptry proteins was partially protected, while two required drug therapy. The experiment clearly demonstrates that the merozoite surface-coat precursor protein can completely protect Aotus monkeys against a lethal infection of the human malaria parasite.