Allelic variants of full-length VAR2CSA, the placental malaria vaccine candidate, differ in antigenicity and receptor binding affinity

Abstract

Full-length VAR2CSA is a potential placental malaria vaccine candidate and in this study, Renn et al. compare antigenicity and receptor binding affinity of different allelic variants in blood samples from pregnant women. Their data show that inter-allelic differences may contribute to the heterogeneity of clinical presentations, which could have implications for vaccine design.