PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jelínková, Lucie
AU  - Flores-Garcia, Yevel
AU  - Shapiro, Sarah
AU  - Roberts, Bryce T.
AU  - Petrovsky, Nikolai
AU  - Zavala, Fidel
AU  - Chackerian, Bryce
TI  - A vaccine targeting the L9 epitope of the malaria circumsporozoite protein confers protection from blood-stage infection in a mouse challenge model
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.10.465032
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.10.465032
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/11/2021.11.10.465032.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/11/2021.11.10.465032.full
AB  - Pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines that induce high-titer, durable antibody responses can potentially provide protection from infection. Here, we engineered a virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine targeting a recently described vulnerable epitope at the N-terminus of the central repeat region of the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) that is recognized by the potently inhibitory monoclonal antibody L9 and show that immunization with L9 VLPs induces strong antibody responses that provide protection from blood-stage malaria in a mouse infection model.Competing Interest StatementB.C. has equity in FL72, a company that does not have financial interest in malaria vaccines. N.P. is affiliated with Vaxine Pty Ltd, a company having a financial interest in Advax adjuvants. The other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.