Antigenic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum and antibody-mediated parasite neutralization

Abstract

Abstract The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, causing the most severe form of the

disease in humans, is characterized by a broad antigenic diversity between different strains

and isolates of the parasite. The antigenic diversity reflects on the one hand polymorphisms

in allelic gene products and, on the other hand, antigenic variation as a result of expression

of alternative genes in multigene families. Using selected polymorphic regions in two

merozoite surface antigens, a method for genotyping P. falciparum parasites has been ...