The humoral immune responses elicited in mice by inoculations with a recombinant protein or DNA based on the circumsporozoite-protein gene of Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract The humoral responses elicited in mice by inoculation, in various doses and by several routes, with plasmid DNA containing the gene coding for the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium falciparum FCC1/HN were compared with those evoked by inoculation with a recombinant expressed protein based on the CSP. With the DNA vaccine, intramuscular inoculations appeared the most effective, followed by intravenous and then subcutaneous injections, the responses in each case being dose-dependent. In both standard ELISA and dot-ELISA, sera from the mice immunized with the DNA were found to have much lower titres of antimalarial antibodies than the corresponding sera from mice immunized with the recombinant protein. Although both 'vaccines' elicited humoral immune responses in BALB/c mice, that based on plasmid DNA took much longer than the recombinant protein to induce high-titre antibody responses.