Abstract:
Background: Recent advances in malaria control efforts have led to an increased number of national malaria control
programmes implementing pre-elimination measures and demonstrated the need to develop new tools to track and
control malaria transmission. Key to understanding transmission is monitoring the prevalence and immune response
against the sexual stages of the parasite, known as gametocytes, which are responsible for transmission. Sexual-stage
specific antigens, Pfs230 and Pfs48/45, have been identified and shown to be targets for transmission blocking antibodies,
but they have been difficult to produce recombinantly in the absence of a fusion partner.
Methods: Regions of Pfs48/45 and Pfs230 known to contain transmission blocking epitopes, 6C and C0, respectively,
were produced in a Lactococcus lactis expression system and used in enzyme linked immunosorbent assays to determine
the seroreactivity of 95 malaria patients living in the Central Region of Ghana.
Results: Pfs48/45.6C and Pfs230.C0 were successfully produced in L. lactis in the absence of a fusion partner using a
simplified purification scheme. Seroprevalence for L. lactis-produced Pfs48/45.6C and Pfs230.C0 in the study population
was 74.7 and 72.8%, respectively.
