ImpactU Versión 3.11.2 Última actualización: Interfaz de Usuario: 16/10/2025 Base de Datos: 29/08/2025 Hecho en Colombia
Peptides Inducing Short-Lived Antibody Responses against Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Have Shorter Structures and Are Read in a Different MHC II Functional Register
The search for a rational method of developing an antimalarial vaccine (malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum) consists of blocking receptor−ligand interaction. Conserved peptides derived from proteins involved in invasion and having strong red blood cell binding ability have thus been identified; immunization studies using Aotus monkeys revealed that these peptides were neither immunogenic nor protection-inducing. Some of these peptides induced long-lasting and very high antibody titers and protection when their critical red blood cell binding residues were replaced to change their immunological properties. Others induced short-lived antibodies that were not associated with inducing protection. The three-dimensional structure of the short-lived antibody-inducing peptide was determined by 1H NMR. Their HLA-DRβ1* molecule binding ability was also determined to ascertain the relationship among three-dimensional structure, their ability to bind to major histocompatibility complex class II molecules (MHC II), and possible short-lived antibody production. These short-lived antibody-inducing peptides were 6.8 ± 0.5 Å shorter between those residues theoretically coming into contact with pocket 1 and pocket 9 of HLA-DRβ1* molecules to which they bind than immunogenic and protection-inducing peptides. These more compact α-helical structures suggest that these short-lived antibody-inducing peptides could have a structure more similar to those of native peptides than immunogenic and protective ones. Such shortening was associated with a shift in HLA-DRβ1* molecule binding and a consequent shift in functional register reading, mainly by alleles of the same haplotype when compared with immunogenic protection-inducing HABPs, suggesting an imperfect and different conformation of the MHC II peptide−TCR complex.