Plasmodium berghei Infection Model in BALB/c Mice

BALB/c mice (six-week-old, female) were purchased from NARA Biotech (Seoul, Korea). Plasmodium berghei ANKA strain 2.34 was serially maintained in mice through intraperitoneal passaging. Recombinant baculovirus (rBV) and VLPs were generated using Spodoptera frugiperda Sf9 cells. The Sf9 cells were cultured in spinner flasks with SF900II media purchased from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, USA). P. berghei whole antigens were prepared following the method previously described [15 (link),16 (link),23 (link),24 (link)]. Blood samples were collected from P. brerghei-infected mice at 8 weeks post-infection via retro-orbital plexus puncture for serum acquisition. Monoclonal anti-M1 antibody and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated secondary mouse IgG antibodies were purchased from Abcam (Cambridge, UK) and Southern Biotech (Birmingham, AL, USA), respectively. Fluorophore-conjugated antibodies were purchased from BD Bioscience (CA, USA) and used to perform flow cytometry.