Protein Microarrays as a Tool to Analyze Antibody Responses to Variant Surface Antigens Expressed on the Surface of Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Erythrocytes.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) remain the gold standard for measuring antibodies, but are time-consuming and use significant amounts of precious sample and reagents. Protein microarrays represent an appealing alternative, particularly for studies focused on large gene families such as those encoding variant surface antigens in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Such microarrays represent an ideal high-throughput platform to study antibody responses to hundreds of malaria parasite variant surface antigens at once, providing critical insights into the development of natural immunity to malaria. We describe the essential background and approach to run an assay using a P. falciparum microarray populated with variant surface antigens. This allows the user to define serologic profiles and identify serodominant antigens that represent promising targets for vaccine or therapeutic development.