TY  - JOUR
A1  - Feller, Tatjana
A1  - Thom, Pascal
A1  - Koch, Natalie
A1  - Spiegel, Holger
A1  - Addai-Mensah, Otchere
A1  - Fischer, Rainer
A1  - Reimann, Andreas
A1  - Pradel, Gabriele
A1  - Fendel, Rolf
A1  - Schillberg, Stefan
A1  - Scheuermayer, Matthias
A1  - Schinkel, Helga
T1  - Plant-Based Production of Recombinant Plasmodium Surface Protein Pf38 and Evaluation of its Potential as a Vaccine Candidate
JF  - PLOS ONE
N2  - Pf38 is a surface protein of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In this study, we produced and purified recombinant Pf38 and a fusion protein composed of red fluorescent protein and Pf38 (RFP-Pf38) using a transient expression system in the plant Nicotiana benthamiana. To our knowledge, this is the first description of the production of recombinant Pf38. To verify the quality of the recombinant Pf38, plasma from semi-immune African donors was used to confirm specific binding to Pf38. ELISA measurements revealed that immune responses to Pf38 in this African subset were comparable to reactivities to AMA-1 and \(MSP1_{19}\). Pf38 and RFP-Pf38 were successfully used to immunise mice, although titres from these mice were low (on average 1:11.000 and 1:39.000, respectively). In immune fluorescence assays, the purified IgG fraction from the sera of immunised mice recognised Pf38 on the surface of schizonts, gametocytes, macrogametes and zygotes, but not sporozoites. Growth inhibition assays using \(\alpha Pf38\) antibodies demonstrated strong inhibition \((\geq 60 \% ) \) of the growth of blood-stage P. falciparum. The development of zygotes was also effectively inhibited by \(\alpha Pf38\) antibodies, as determined by the zygote development assay. Collectively, these results suggest that Pf38 is an interesting candidate for the development of a malaria vaccine.
KW  - malaria vaccine
KW  - balancing selection
KW  - N-glycans
KW  - falciparum
KW  - expression
KW  - antibodies
KW  - identification
KW  - transmission
KW  - tobacco
KW  - antigen
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-128221
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 8
IS  - 11
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gupta, Shishir K.
A1  - Minocha, Rashmi
A1  - Thapa, Prithivi Jung
A1  - Srivastava, Mugdha
A1  - Dandekar, Thomas
T1  - Role of the pangolin in origin of SARS-CoV-2: an evolutionary perspective
JF  - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
N2  - After the recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, unanswered questions remain related to its evolutionary history, path of transmission or divergence and role of recombination. There is emerging evidence on amino acid substitutions occurring in key residues of the receptor-binding domain of the spike glycoprotein in coronavirus isolates from bat and pangolins. In this article, we summarize our current knowledge on the origin of SARS-CoV-2. We also analyze the host ACE2-interacting residues of the receptor-binding domain of spike glycoprotein in SARS-CoV-2 isolates from bats, and compare it to pangolin SARS-CoV-2 isolates collected from Guangdong province (GD Pangolin-CoV) and Guangxi autonomous regions (GX Pangolin-CoV) of South China. Based on our comparative analysis, we support the view that the Guangdong Pangolins are the intermediate hosts that adapted the SARS-CoV-2 and represented a significant evolutionary link in the path of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus. We also discuss the role of intermediate hosts in the origin of Omicron.
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - SARS-CoV-2
KW  - origin
KW  - evolution
KW  - intermediate host
KW  - pangolin
KW  - mutation
KW  - recombination
KW  - adaptation
KW  - transmission
KW  - comparative sequence analysis
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-285995
SN  - 1422-0067
VL  - 23
IS  - 16
ER  -