{"doi":"10.1128/iai.00374-23","title":"Transmission-reducing and -enhancing monoclonal antibodies against <i>Plasmodium vivax</i> gamete surface protein Pvs48/45","abstract":"ABSTRACT Gamete surface protein P48/45 has been shown to be important for male gamete fertility and a strong candidate for the development of a malaria transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV). However, TBV development for Plasmodium vivax homolog Pvs48/45 has been slow because of a number of challenges: availability of conformationally suitable recombinant protein; the lack of an in vivo challenge model; and the inability to produce P. vivax gametocytes in culture to test transmission-blocking activity of antibodies. To support ongoing efforts to develop Pvs48/45 as a potential vaccine candidate, we initiated efforts to develop much needed reagents to move the field forward. We generated monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against Pvs48/45 and characterized putative functional domains in Pvs48/45 using recombinant fragments corresponding to domains D1–D3 and their biological functionality through ex vivo direct membrane feeding assays (DMFAs) using P. vivax parasites from patients in a field setting in Brazil. While some mAbs partially blocked oocyst development in the DMFA, one mAb caused a significant enhancement of the infectivity of gametocytes in the mosquitoes. Individual mAbs exhibiting blocking and enhancing activities recognized non-overlapping epitopes in Pvs48/45. Further characterization of precise epitopes recognized by transmission-reducing and -enhancing antibodies will be crucial to design an effective immunogen with optimum transmission-reducing potential.","journal":"Infection and Immunity","year":2024,"id":437727,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9608,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":672961,"name":"Maísa da Silva Araújo","orcid":"0000-0003-3607-0433","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":861869,"name":"Yi Cao","orcid":"0000-0001-7590-2373","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247214,"name":"Emily Shaffer","orcid":"0000-0002-0654-9104","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1114570,"name":"Jéssica E. Araújo","orcid":"0000-0001-6683-3003","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":672966,"name":"Jansen Fernandes Medeiros","orcid":"0000-0003-4196-8985","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1007372,"name":"Clifford Hayashi","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":378656,"name":"Joseph M. Vinetz","orcid":"0000-0001-8344-2004","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":258576,"name":"Nirbhay Kumar","orcid":"0000-0002-0358-4924","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":967419,"name":"Geetha P. Bansal","orcid":"0000-0003-2204-0225","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":35,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:00:34.490087Z","pmid":"38289124","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}