Immunization of mice against Plasmodium vinckei with a combination of attenuated Salmonella typhimurium and malarial antigen.

Infection with the blood stage of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vinckei is uniformly lethal in mice. We found that immunization of BALB/c mice with a combination of killed P. vinckei antigens and an attenuated (aroA) Salmonella typhimurium strain induces high levels of protection against challenge with live P. vinckei. This is especially significant because, in our previous studies, immunization of mice with killed P. vinckei antigens and adjuvants such as Bordetella pertussis, complete Freund adjuvant, and saponin failed to induce protective immunity. Immunization with attenuated S. typhimurium alone did not provide any nonspecific immunity. In vivo depletion of CD4+ T cells in the mice immunized with attenuated S. typhimurium and P. vinckei antigens caused the loss of their immunity. Expression of this immunity required the presence of a spleen. These results support our previous hypothesis that a blood stage malaria vaccine may need both induction of CD4+ T cells specific for the parasite and modification of the spleen with a vaccine vehicle. Therefore, attenuated Salmonella strains such as the one used in this study, when expressing recombinant malarial antigens, might fulfill this requirement.