Objective: To analyze the difference of nucleotide sequences of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) gene and LDH epitopes of Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum.
Methods: Specific primers were designed to amplify the full-length LDH gene sequence of P. vivax and P. falciparum (GenBank accession number: DQ198262 and DQ060151 respectively). The PCR products were sequenced and compared. The epitopes of objective LDH antigens were predicted by SYFPEITHI software. Pv-LDH and Pf-LDH genes were cloned into prokaryotic plasmid pET28a, then expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) with isopropyl beta-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) induction. The immunogenicity of the recombinants Pv-LDH and Pf-LDH was analyzed by Western blotting and neutralization ELISA assays.
Results: Pf-LDH gene was same to reference sequences(DQ198262), while there is a single nucleotide difference at the position 666 between Pv-LDH gene and reference sequences (DQ060151). The coding region of the two genes contained 951 bp encoding a 316-amino-acid residue. Compared with Pf-LDH, Pv-LDH showed a nucleotide sequence identity of 75.1%, and an amino acid sequence identity of 90.2%. T cell epitope prediction indicated that there were 28 human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types which could recognize pLDH antigen epitopes. The common or similar epitopes accounted for about 75% of the predicted 180 epitopes. The number of specific epitopes of Pv-LDH and Pf-LDH proteins was 38 and 45, respectively. Western blotting analysis showed that the Pv-LDH recombinant antigen reacted with the sera of malaria patients, and the reactivity was much lower than that of sera of immunized rabbit. Neutralization ELISA showed that about 70.3% reactivity of Pv-LDH polyclonal antibodies could be suppressed by Pv-LDH, while only 30.5% by Pf-LDH.
Conclusion: There are differences in DNA sequences of LDH gene and LDH epitopes between P. vivax and P. falciparum. The antibodies induced by the specific epitopes account for a small proportion in the antibody repertoire.