Merozoite surface protein 4/5 provides protection against lethal challenge with a heterologous malaria parasite strain

Immunization with merozoite surface protein 4/5 (MSP4/5), the murine malaria homologue of Plasmodium falciparum MSP4 and MSP5, has been shown to protect mice against challenge by parasites expressing the homologous form of the protein. The gene encoding MSP4/5 was sequenced from a number of Plasmodium yoelii isolates in order to assess the level of polymorphism in the protein. The gene was found to be highly conserved among the 13 P. yoelii isolates sequenced, even though many of the same isolates showed pronounced variability in their MSP1(19) sequences. Nonsynonymous mutations were detected only for the isolates Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis N67 and Plasmodium yoelii killicki 193L and 194ZZ. Immunization and challenge of BALB/c mice showed that the heterologous MSP4/5 proteins were able to confer a level of protection against lethal Plasmodium yoelii yoelii YM challenge infection similar to that induced by immunization with the homologous MSP4/5 protein. To explore the limits of heterologous protection, mice were immunized with recombinant MSP4/5 protein from Plasmodium berghei ANKA and Plasmodium chabaudi adami DS and challenged with P. y. yoelii YM. Interestingly, significant protection was afforded by P. berghei ANKA MSP4/5, which shows 81% sequence identity with P. y. yoelii YM MSP4/5, but it was abolished upon reduction and alkylation. Significant protection was not observed for mice immunized with recombinant P. c. adami DS MSP4/5, which shows 55.7% sequence identity with P. y. yoelii YM MSP4/5. This study demonstrates the robustness of MSP4/5 in conferring protection against variant forms of the protein in a murine challenge system, in contrast to the situation found for other asexual-stage proteins, such as MSP1(19) and AMA1.