Generation of an antibody that recognizes Plasmodium chabaudi cysteine protease (chabaupain-1) in both sexual and asexual parasite life cycle and evaluation of chabaupain-1 vaccine potential

• Authors: Almeida AJ, Antunes S, Armada A, Custodio A, Domingos A, Gazarini M, Gonçalves LM, Rodrigues A, Rosário VE, Santos-Gomes G, Silveira H
• Publication Year: 2013
• Journal: Experimental Parasitology
• Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23830988

Malaria cysteine proteases have been shown to be immunogenic and are being exploited as serodiagnostic markers, drug and vaccine targets. Several Plasmodium spp. cysteine proteases have been described and the best characterized of these are the falcipains, a family of papain-family enzymes. Falcipain-2 and falcipain-3 act in concert with other proteases to hydrolyze host erythrocyte hemoglobin in the parasite food vacuole.
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