Malaria continues to be a public health problem throughout the world. Plasmodium falciparum is often identified as the cause of the most severe forms of malaria. This invention relates generally to the development and use of a recombinant, multi-valent and multi-stage malaria vaccine and more specifically relates to an antigenic protein useful for preventing or treating P. falciparum malarial infections. The invention further provides a vaccine against malaria that is effective in inhibiting reproductive growth of the parasite within a human or animal after initial infection. Also, this invention provides a method for conferring immunity against different stages in the life cycle of the malarial parasite, P. falciparum. Furthermore, the invention includes antibodies against a recombinant protein containing antigenic epitopes to various stages of a malarial Plasmodium species that may be useful as research or diagnostic reagents for the detection and measurement of P. falciparum in a biological sample.   

Inventors: Altaf Lal, Ryan M Greene, Ya Ping Shi, and Seyed E Hasnain

CDC Reference Number: I-004-98/0

USPTO Serial Number: PCT/US99/18869

Patent Number: