Papers of the Week

The Necator americanus hemoglobinase, aspartic protease-1 (Na-APR-1), facilitates the ability of adult hookworms to parasitize the intestine of their human hosts. A recombinant version of APR-1 protected laboratory animals against hookworm infection by inducing neutralizing antibodies that block the protein's enzymatic activity and thereby impair blood feeding. A catalytically inactive version of the wild-type hemoglobinase (Na-APR-1(M74)) was expressed by infiltrating Nicotiana benthamiana tobacco plants with an Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain engineered to express the vaccine antigen, which was adjuvanted with aluminum hydroxide adjuvant (Alhydrogel).