ArticleScientific reports2019
VAR2CSA binding phenotype has ancient origin and arose before Plasmodium falciparum crossed to humans: implications in placental malaria vaccine design.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- The exception that proves the rule: Virulence gene expression at the onset of Plasmodium falciparum blood stage infections.PLoS pathogens · 2023Trial
- Beyond VAR2CSA: redefining the antigenic landscape of placental malaria vaccines.Open research Africa · 2026Review
- Exploring theFrontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Progress and Insights Toward an Effective Placental Malaria Vaccine.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Oncofetal Chondroitin Sulfate: A Putative Therapeutic Target in Adult and Pediatric Solid Tumors.Cells · 2020Review
- Immunoinformatics and Vaccine Development: An Overview.ImmunoTargets and therapy · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
VAR2CSA is a leading candidate for developing a placental malaria (PM) vaccine that would protect pregnant women living in malaria endemic areas against placental infections and improve birth outcomes. Two VAR2CSA-based PM vaccines are currently under clinical trials, but it is still unclear if the use of a single VAR2CSA variant will be sufficient to induce a broad enough humoral response in humans to cross-react with genetically diverse parasite populations. Additional immuno-focusing vaccine strategies may therefore be required to identify functionally conserved antibody epitopes in VAR2CSA. We explored the possibility that conserved epitopes could exist between VAR2CSA from the chimpanzee parasite Plasmodium reichenowi and Plasmodium falciparum sequences. Making use of VAR2CSA recombinant proteins originating from both species, we showed that VAR2CSA from P. reichenowi (Pr-VAR2CSA) binds to the placental receptor CSA with high specificity and affinity. Antibodies raised against Pr-VAR2CSA were able to recognize native VAR2CSA from different P. falciparum genotypes and to inhibit the interaction between CSA and P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes expressing different VAR2CSA variants. Our work revealed the existence of cross-species inhibitory epitopes in VAR2CSA and calls for pre-clinical studies assessing the efficacy of novel VAR2CSA-based cross-species boosting regimens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.