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 which amino acids sequence is similar in terms of length (38 amino acids) and amino acid properties to Cecropin B, an antibacterial peptide. The purpose of the immunotoxin is to specifically target and lyse the parasite.

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

However E. Coli is not a natural symbiote of the mosquito. We would like to improve this experiment by making Asaia express the immunotoxin in the mosquitos 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.