Immunotoxin

The immunotoxin is composed of two main parts. The first is a single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) directed to Pbs2l, a surface membrane protein of P. berghei ookinetes. This fragment is linked to the second part, a lytic peptide, Shiva-1. Shiva-1 is a synthetic peptide with an amino acid sequence similar, in terms of length (38 amino acids) and amino acid properties, to Cecropin B which is an antibacterial peptide. The purpose of the immunotoxin is to specifically target and lyse the parasite.

Previous experiments conducted show that feeding mosquitoes with recombinant E.Coli that expressed this immunotoxin induced a significantly lower oocyst density. [1]

However E. Coli is not a natural symbiote of the mosquito. We would like to contribute to the fight against malaria by engineering Asaia in order to express the immunotoxin in the mosquito's intestinal tract, and run experiments to see if it significantly reduces the number of oocysts.

The sequence of the immunotoxin was taken from our reference paper [1], and the codons were optimized for E.Coli before ordering the sequence.