Recombinant Malaria Antigen VLPs

Codon-optimized P. berghei AMA1 (accession number: XM_672965.2, 1671 bp) and MIC (accession number: XM_034568180.1, 933 bp) genes in pFastBac™ were provided from GenScript (Piscataway, New Jersey, USA). The recombinant plasmids were transformed into DH10Bac competent cells and bacmid DNA was extracted using FavorPrep gel purification Kit (Favorgen, Cheshire, UK). Recombinant baculoviruses (rBV) expressing AMA1, MIC, or M1 were produced as described previously [16 (link)]. To produce AMA1 VLPs and MIC VLPs, SF9 cells were co-infected with rBVs expressing AMA1 or MIC with M1 as described previously [16 (link)]. M1 VLPs were prepared by infecting SF9 cells with rBVs expressing the M1 protein, and were confirmed using mouse anti-M1 antibody by western. The contents for AMA1 and MIC in VLPs were confirmed using sera from parasite-infected mouse by western blot as described previously [8 (link)].