Preclinical Development and Assessment of Viral Vectors Expressing a Fusion Antigen of Plasmodium falciparum LSA1 and LSAP2 for Efficacy against Liver-Stage Malaria

Abstract

Despite promising progress in malaria vaccine development in recent years, an efficacious subunit vaccine against P. falciparum (Pf) remains to be licensed and deployed. Cell mediated protection from liver-stage malaria is reliant on a sufficient number of antigen specific T cells reaching the liver during the time that parasites are present. A single vaccine expressing two antigens could potentially increase both the size and breadth of antigen specific response, while halving vaccine production cost. In this study we investigated combining two liver stage antigens PfLSA1 and PfLSAP2, and investigated induction of protective efficacy by co-administration of single-antigen vectors or vaccina..