binds the Fc-region of human being IgM molecules, resulting in a

binds the Fc-region of human being IgM molecules, resulting in a coating of IgM on the surface of infected erythrocytes. needed to identify the specific interaction site for IgM within the minimal binding region of PfEMP1. 1.?Introduction Many pathogens have evolved to bind to a common site on the Fc portion of immunoglobulin, however, the consequences of such interactions are largely unexplored [1]. Erythrocyte Membrane Protein 1 (PfEMP1) [2], which is a variant surface antigen Rabbit Polyclonal to PDXDC1. encoded by the gene family. Each parasite has approximately 60 genes in its genome, with only one transcribed at a right time per iRBC [3]. Switching of gene transcription qualified prospects to a big change in the PfEMP1 variant indicated on the top of iRBC and is in charge of antigenic variant of malaria parasites [3]. PfEMP1 substances are made of cysteine-rich adhesion domains known as Duffy Binding Like (DBL) and Cysteine-rich Inter-Domain Areas (CIDR) that bind to a variety of sponsor receptors including Compact disc36, Chondroitin Sulphate A (CSA), InterCellular Adhesion Endothelial and Molecule-1 Proteins C Receptor [4]. The adhesion domains are additional categorized into subtypes, DBL (, , , , ?, and phenotypes such as rosetting with uninfected RBC in severe childhood malaria [7] and binding to CSA in placental malaria [8]. The molecular basis of IgM binding by PfEMP1 is not fully understood, but current data suggest that most IgM binding sites lie within specific DBL? and DBL domains [2,9C11]. Previously we studied an IgM binding rosetting line TM284R+, which is a culture-adapted parasite derived from a Thai patient with cerebral malaria [12]. Rosetting is the binding of iRBC to two or more uninfected RBC, and is a PfEMP1-mediated parasite virulence phenotype that is implicated in severe malaria [13]. Many rosetting PfEMP1 variants bind IgM [14], and the IgM is thought to strengthen and stabilise the rosettes [12,15]. We identified the PfEMP1 variant expressed by IgM binding rosetting TM284R+ parasites as TM284var1, and showed that the IgM binding region is the fourth TAK-901 DBL domain from the N-terminus, DBL4 [2] (Fig. 1A). This domain was initially described as a DBL subtype, however, more recent analyses indicate that this domain is a DBL subtype [6]. Henceforth, we shall refer to this domain as TM284var1 DBL4. Fig. 1 Identification of the minimal IgM binding region of the TM284var1 DBL4 domain. TAK-901 In our previous work, we localised the PfEMP1-IgM binding interaction site to the C3-C4 region of IgM Fc, and showed that the same site on IgM is used by multiple different genotypes [2,16]. Although, a common site on the host IgM molecule has been identified, the IgM binding site within a parasite DBL domain has not yet been investigated further. The aim of this study was to determine the minimal region within TM284var1 DBL4 required for IgM binding, and to use site-directed mutagenesis to investigate the role of specific amino acids within TM284var1 DBL4 identified as possible IgM-interaction sites from homology modelling. 2.?Materials and methods 2.1. Deletion constructs and COS cell immunofluorescence assays Deletion constructs TAK-901 based on TM284var1 (Genbank accession number “type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”JQ684046″,”term_id”:”385722317″,”term_text”:”JQ684046″JQ684046) DBL4 were amplified and cloned into the pRE4 vector as described previously [9,17]. The amino acid boundaries and primers used are shown in Table S1. Immunofluorescence assays (IFAs) were carried out as described previously [9]. Briefly, COS-7 cells were seeded in wells containing 12?mm coverslips and transfected with constructs using FuGene (Roche) according to TAK-901 the manufacturers protocol. IFAs were carried out forty-eight hours after transfection on cells that were washed with Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) and fixed for.