Functional magnetic nanoparticles for efficient malaria DNA vaccine delivery

Efficient DNA transfection is crucial for DNA vaccine delivery, as low efficacy is often observed in many in vitro and in vivo studies. To overcome the problem due to cell barriers, the gene vector can be associated with narrow size superparamagnetic nanoparticles, followed by application of an external magnetic field to target the vector to its desired direction. This technique has been proven to result in excellent cell transfection level and to speed up the duration of the process from hours to a few minutes and minimize the vector dose. Thus, the undesired toxicity of magnetic nanoparticles is also reduced. The objective of this study is to improve malaria DNA vaccine delivery with magnetofection by using the membrane associated 19-kDa COOH terminal fragment of merozoite surface protein (MSP1₁₉) that plays a critical role in plasmodium immunity and is now a leading malaria vaccine candidate.