Study of disease-fighting antibodies paves the way for viable malaria vaccine
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that, in 2017, there were an estimated 219 million malaria cases worldwide, which led to some 435,000 deaths; but developing an effective malaria vaccine is particularly difficult because of the survival strategy of the malaria parasite in the human body – it quickly changes the structure of proteins it attaches to to evade immune responses.
A multinational team of malaria experts, including those from the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University (JCU-AITHM) and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) at Deakin University, has since set out to form a vaccine, from specialised serum samples, against severe forms of the disease.
The research team managed to identify antibodies which proved effective in fighting the most severe forms of malaria after examining hundreds of PfEMP1 proteins extracted from malaria strains from children in Papua New Guinea (PNG), over 16 months.
While researchers have thought that developing a malaria vaccine based on PfEMP1 would be virtually impossible, Associate Professor Alyssa Barry, of the Systems Epidemiology of Infection unit within the Deakin School of Medicine, said antimalarial immunity is indeed achievable – the immunity can even develop after exposure to only a few strains.Associate Professor Barry also said that the immunity only involved a small subset of proteins, which are easy to identify and isolate as essential components for a vaccine.
“One village in a country such as PNG could contain thousands of possible malaria strains and children who are repeatedly infected develop immunity to severe malaria early on – this biomarker of immunity provides hope that creating a vaccine might be possible,” she added.
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