Longitudinal study of Plasmodium falciparum polymorphic antigens in a malaria-endemic population

Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface antigens MSP1 and MSP2 and an exported antigen, Exp-1, exhibit allelic polymorphism in natural populations. To explain this, one hypothesis is that antigen polymorphisms are maintained by frequency-dependent immune selection. An expectation of the hypothesis is that rare variants have an advantage over common variants because of a lower level of acquired immunity against them and thus increase in frequency until an equilibrium is attained. To test this hypothesis, the frequencies of polymorphic epitopes of MSP1, MSP2, and Exp-1 were determined among isolates from malaria patients in an urban area of The Gambia, during different periods of one transmission season (1988) and in different years (1982, 1983, 1988, and 1989). The frequencies remained very stable throughout the period of study, alternative epitope variants remaining either rare or common, without shifts in relative frequencies. These results are discussed with reference to the immune-selection hypothesis, with the conclusion that frequencies of the major dimorphic serological classes of MSP1 are probably not maintained by immune selection.