Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Parasitology 1735-7020 7 1 2012 03 15 26 31 EN A Motevalli Haghi Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran M Nateghpour Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Center for Research of Endemic Parasites of Iran (CREPI), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran GhH Edrissian Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Center for Research of Endemic Parasites of Iran (CREPI), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Z Sepehrizadeh Dept. of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Pharmacy faculty, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran M Mohebali Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran MR Khoramizade Dept. of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran S Sabouri Shahrbabak Dept. of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Pharmacy faculty, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran H Moghimi Dept. of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran 2015 10 03 Background: Plasmodium vivax is responsible for approximately 80 million malaria cases in the world. Apical membrane antigen1 (AMA-1) is a type I integral membrane protein present in all Plasmo­dium species. AMA-1 interferes in critical steps of invasion of human hepatocytes by sporo­zoites and red blood cells by merozoites and is one of the most immunodominant antigens for elicit­ing a protective immune response in human. It is considered as a promising antigen for inclusion in a vaccine against P. vivax. Since more knowledge is needed to lighten the scope of such antigen we com­pared genetic variation in P. vivax AMA-1from an Iranian isolate with those reported from some of the other malarious countries so far. Methods: P. vivax genomic DNA was extracted from the whole blood of an Iranian patient with pa­tent P. vivax infection. The nucleotide sequence for 446 amino acid (AA) residues (42-488 of PvAMA-1) was amplified by PCR and cloned in pUC19 vector for sequencing. Results: Sequence analysis of the antigen showed a high degree of identity (99%) with strong homol­ogy to the PvAMA-1 gene of P. vivax S3 and SKO814 isolates from India and Korea (Asian isolates) respectively, and 96% similarity with P. vivax Sal-1 AMA-1 gene from El Salvador. Conclusions: We cloned and characterized three domains of PvAMA-1 gene from an Iranian patient. Predicted protein sequence of this gene showed some discrepancies in corresponding protein in compar­ing with similar genes reported from other malarious countries. https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/view/216 https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/download/216/215