Circumsporozoite Protein-Specific K^d-Restricted CD8+ T Cells Mediate Protective Antimalaria Immunity in Sporozoite-Immunized MHC-I-K^d Transgenic Mice

Figure 2

Protection against malaria infection after a single immunizing dose of IrPySpz. Groups of naive B6 mice and MHC-I-K^d-Tg mice (5 per group) were immunized with 1 × 10⁵ IrPySpz via IV or IM injection. Protection assay was performed by challenge with 5 × 10⁴ viable P. yoelii sporozoites via IV injection 2 weeks after immunization. Naïve B6 mice and MHC-I-K^d-Tg mice were also challenged as infection control. Parasite burden was described as a ratio of the absolute copy number of parasite-specific 18s rRNA to that of mouse GAPDH. 𝑃<0.01 is considered statistically significant, whereas N.S. means “not significant” in Figures 2–4.