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. 1990 Sep;58(9):2989–2994. doi: 10.1128/iai.58.9.2989-2994.1990

Number of cells from Plasmodium falciparum-immune donors that produce gamma interferon in vitro in response to Pf155/RESA, a malaria vaccine candidate antigen.

L Kabilan 1, M Troye-Blomberg 1, G Andersson 1, E M Riley 1, H P Ekre 1, H C Whittle 1, P Perlmann 1
PMCID: PMC313600  PMID: 1696935

Abstract

Secretion of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) in response to stimulation of Plasmodium falciparum-primed T cells by specific antigens may be a useful indicator of cellular immunity to malaria. An enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay designed to detect IFN-gamma at the single-cell level was used to study IFN-gamma-producing cells from P. falciparum-primed donors from The Gambia after in vitro stimulation with various malarial antigens. IFN-gamma secreted into the culture supernatant was measured by conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). There was a good correlation in individual donors between the level of IFN-gamma secreted into the culture supernatant and the number of IFN-gamma-secreting cells. However, the ELISPOT assay was apparently more sensitive in demonstrating low levels of IFN-gamma production than the ELISA was. Thus after stimulation with crude P. falciparum antigen from infected erythrocytes, 72% of the primed donors responded positively in the ELISPOT assay but only 55% responded positively in the ELISA. When stimulated with synthetic peptides representing immunodominant epitopes of the malarial antigen Pf155/RESA, a vaccine candidate, 31 to 55% responded in the ELISPOT assay and 21 to 36% responded in the ELISA. Unprimed Europeans did not respond positively to these antigens in either of the assays, and background in antigen-free controls was generally low. These results indicate that measurement of IFN-gamma by the ELISPOT assay or ELISA should have wide applications in large-scale epidemiological studies of malaria immunity. In addition, the ELISPOT assay makes it possible to analyze the T cells responding to malarial antigens in terms of both numbers and functional heterogeneity.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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