The establishment of a WHO Reference Reagent for anti-malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) human serum

Bryan, Donna, Silva, Nilupa, Rigsby, Peter, Dougall, Thomas, Corran, Patrick, Bowyer, Paul W., Ho, Mei Mei, and Collaborative Study Group including Denise Doolan, (2017) The establishment of a WHO Reference Reagent for anti-malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) human serum. Malaria Journal, 16 (1). 314. pp. 1-10.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: At a World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored meeting it was concluded that there is an urgent need for a reference preparation that contains antibodies against malaria antigens in order to support serology studies and vaccine development. It was proposed that this reference would take the form of a lyophilized serum or plasma pool from a malaria-endemic area. In response, an immunoassay standard, comprising defibrinated human plasma has been prepared and evaluated in a collaborative study.

RESULTS: A pool of human plasma from a malaria endemic region was collected from 140 single plasma donations selected for reactivity to Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and merozoite surface proteins (MSP-119, MSP-142, MSP-2 and MSP-3). This pool was defibrinated, filled and freeze dried into a single batch of ampoules to yield a stable source of naturally occurring antibodies to P. falciparum. The preparation was evaluated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a collaborative study with sixteen participants from twelve different countries. This anti-malaria human serum preparation (NIBSC Code: 10/198) was adopted by the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) in October 2014, as the first WHO reference reagent for anti-malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) human serum with an assigned arbitrary unitage of 100 units (U) per ampoule.

CONCLUSION: Analysis of the reference reagent in a collaborative study has demonstrated the benefit of this preparation for the reduction in inter- and intra-laboratory variability in ELISA. Whilst locally sourced pools are regularly use for harmonization both within and between a few laboratories, the presence of a WHO-endorsed reference reagent should enable optimal harmonization of malaria serological assays either by direct use of the reference reagent or calibration of local standards against this WHO reference. The intended uses of this reference reagent, a multivalent preparation, are (1) to allow cross-comparisons of results of vaccine trials performed in different centres/with different products; (2) to facilitate standardization and harmonization of immunological assays used in epidemiology research; and (3) to allow optimization and validation of immunological assays used in malaria vaccine development.

Item ID: 50056
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1475-2875
Keywords: malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; reference; serology; standardization; vaccine; WHO Reference Reagent
Additional Information:

© The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Funders: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Victorian State Government (VSG)
Projects and Grants: VSG Operational Infrastructure Support Scheme
Date Deposited: 05 Sep 2017 01:18
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420317 Patient safety @ 50%
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3204 Immunology > 320404 Cellular immunology @ 25%
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3204 Immunology > 320405 Humoural immunology and immunochemistry @ 25%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920109 Infectious Diseases @ 100%
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