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Infection and Immunity, October 1999, p. 5163-5169, Vol. 67, No. 10
Department of Microbiology, Dartmouth Medical
School, Lebanon, New Hampshire 037561;
Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical
Center, Worcester, Massachusetts 016552; and
Department of Molecular Protozoology, Research Institute for
Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan3
Received 23 March 1999/Returned for modification 1 June
1999/Accepted 23 July 1999
The liver- and blood-stage-expressed serine repeat antigen (SERA)
of Plasmodium falciparum is a candidate protein for a human malaria vaccine. We compared the immune responses induced in mice immunized with SERA-expressing plasmid DNA vaccines delivered by
intramuscular (i.m.) injection or delivered intradermally by Gene Gun
immunization. Mice were immunized with a pcdna3 plasmid encoding the
entire 47-kDa domain of SERA (amino acids 17 to 382) or the N-terminal
domain (amino acids 17 to 110) of SERA. Minimal antibody responses were
detected following DNA vaccination with the N-terminal domain of SERA,
suggesting that the N-terminal domain alone is not highly immunogenic
by this route of vaccine delivery. Immunization of mice by Gene Gun
delivery of the 47-kDa domain of SERA elicited a significantly higher
serum antibody titer to the antigen than immunization of mice by i.m.
injection with the same plasmid did. The predominant isotype subclass
of the antibodies elicited to the SERA protein following i.m. and Gene
Gun immunizations with SERA plasmid DNA was immunoglobulin G1.
Coimmunization of mice with SERA plasmid DNA and a plasmid expressing
the hepatitis B surface antigen (pCMV-s) by the i.m. route resulted in
higher anti-SERA titers than those generated in mice immunized with the
SERA DNA plasmid alone. Vaccination with DNA may provide a viable
alternative or may be used in conjunction with protein-based subunit
vaccines to maximize the efficacy of a human malaria vaccine that
includes immunogenic regions of the SERA protein.
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Immune Responses Induced by Gene Gun or Intramuscular Injection
of DNA Vaccines That Express Immunogenic Regions of the Serine
Repeat Antigen from Plasmodium falciparum

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH 03756. Phone: (603) 650-7951. Fax: (603) 650-6223. E-mail:
david.j.bzik{at}dartmouth.edu.
Present address: Department of Internal Medicine, Section of
Rheumatology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.
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