The use of proteomics for the identification of promising vaccine and diagnostic biomarkers in Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract

Plasmodium falciparum is the main cause of severe malaria in humans that can lead to death. There is growing evidence of drug-resistance in P. falciparum treatment, and the design of effective vaccines remains an ongoing strategy to control the disease. On the other hand, the recognition of specific diagnostic markers for P. falciparum can accelerate the diagnosis of this parasite in the early stages of infection. Therefore, the identification of novel antigenic proteins especially by proteomic tools is urgent for vaccination and diagnosis of P. falciparum. The proteome diversity of the life cycle stages of P. falciparum, the altered proteome of P. falciparum-infected human sera and altered proteins in P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes could be proposed as appropriate proteins for the aforementioned aims. Accordingly, this review highlights and proposes different proteins identified using proteomic approaches as promising markers in the diagnosis and vaccination of P. falciparum. It seems that most of the candidates identified in this study were able to elicit immune responses in the P. falciparum-infected hosts and they also played major roles in the life cycle, pathogenicity and key pathways of this parasite.

Mining the Proteome of Toxoplasma Parasites Seeking Vaccine and Diagnostic Candidates

“…Proteomics analysis has allowed the identification of key proteins that can be utilized in the development of novel disease diagnostics and vaccines [27][28][29][30][31]. Thus, proteomic approaches may help to identify such proteins with crucial roles in mediating parasite capacity to modulate the host immune response.…”