Figure 2: Vaccine antigen discovery pipeline for developing a prophylactic vaccine for LF.

The completion of the genome project, identification of the transcriptome and secretome of the B. malayi and W. bancrofti parasites gave a tremendous boost to the identification of target vaccine candidate antigens of LF. It is now well established that in the endemic area certain subjects (EN) carry protective antibodies against LF in their peripheral blood and remain uninfected. Recent advances in the genomic screening have enabled us to screen the genome of LF parasites with the immune sera from EN subjects and identify antigens that are specifically recognized by the protective antibodies. Using a bioinformatics approach, the target antigens are then identified, cloned, expressed and evaluated for their vaccine potential using in vitro assays. Promising candidates among these along with suitable adjuvants are then tested in various experimental animal models for their pre-clinical vaccine efficacy. The most promising vaccine candidates are then taken up for GMP manufacturing, scale-up production, toxicity, and stability testing before being developed for clinical testing in the human. The figure was created with BioRender.com.