New vaccine against malaria discovered

New vaccine to reduce disease rates and protect against malaria

09/08/2013

US researchers report significant progress in the development of a malaria vaccine. Accordingly, the new vaccine protection should reduce the malaria disease rate. The immunization is carried out in a similar way as in a sting of an infected mosquito - in the vaccine, however, only malaria pathogens in attenuated, sterile and purified form are used. As a result, an immune reaction is provoked in the human body, but the disease does not break out.

Vaccine should be just as effective against malaria as a sting from an infected mosquito
Such as Robert Seder of the Impungsforschungszentrum in Bethesda in the US state of Maryland and his research team in the journal „Science“ report that it has been possible to prepare the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which transmits a particularly dangerous form of malaria, in a vaccine serum.

It has been known for 40 years that an injection with Plasmodium falciparum can immunize against malaria, but so far there has been no method of cultivating the parasites and producing a corresponding serum. „Consistent high-level and vaccine-induced protection against human malaria has so far only been achieved by vaccination with Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites via mosquito bites“, the researchers write in the journal. The aggressive pathogens in a mosquito, however, can cause malaria, so that this variant of the immunization is not very practical. For the new vaccine, on the other hand, only attenuated, sterile and purified pathogens are used.

For the study, the 40 subjects were divided into two groups. Within one year, the first group received four doses of the new active substance, while the second received five doses during the same period. It turned out that one-third of the subjects in the first group and no study participants in the second group developed malaria. The number of antibodies in the blood was higher, the more vaccine doses were administered. The researchers report that the T cells, which play an important part in the immune system in the human body, respond to the vaccine serum. „The response of the pathogen-specific antibodies and T cells was dose-dependent“, explain Seder and his team. Such protection has so far been achieved only by transmission with malaria mosquitoes.

According to the journal, however, further, extensive studies must follow, which among other things clarify how long the immunization lasts and whether the serum is effective against other Plasmodium falciparum strains.

Malaria is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world
According to WHO estimates, around 660,000 people worldwide died of malaria in 2010. Around 219 million people are said to be ill during the same period. Most cases (about 90 percent) occur in Africa, as the host of pathogens, mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, is the most prevalent in the tropics and subtropics. If an infected mosquito stings, the parasites enter the bloodstream and can cause severe discomfort. Sufferers suffer from very high, recurring fever, chills, margin problems and cramps. Especially in children, malaria, if not treated, quickly leads to coma and eventually death. Although there are medicines for the disease, but in many regions, resistance has developed, so that many funds are no longer effective. As so often, the disease affects the weakest most. Most children under the age of five are affected by malaria.

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Picture: Uschi Dreiucker