Promising candidates for malaria vaccine revealed

Presently there is no malaria vaccine available, and these new findings support the development of a vaccine against the blood-stage of malaria.

Malaria is an infection of blood cells and is transmitted by mosquitoes. The most common form of malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria parasites burrow into red blood cells by producing specific proteins. Once inside red blood cells, the parasites rapidly multiply, leading to massive numbers of parasites in the blood stream that can cause severe disease and death.

Dr James Beeson, Dr Freya Fowkes and Dr Jack Richards from the institute's Infection and Immunity division, along with Dr Julie Simpson from the University of Melbourne, have identified proteins produced by malaria parasites during the blood-stage that are effective at promoting immune responses that protect people from malaria illness.

Their findings are published today in the international journal PLoS Medicine.

Drs Fowkes and Beeson identified these proteins by reviewing and synthesising data from numerous scientific studies that had looked at the relationship between antibodies produced by the human immune system in response to malaria infection and the ability of these antibodies to protect against malaria.

Dr Beeson said malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum was a leading cause of death and disease globally, particularly among young children. “As well as presenting an enormous health burden, malaria also has a major impact on social and economic development in countries where the disease is endemic,” Dr Beeson said. “Vaccines are urgently needed to reduce the burden of malaria and perhaps eventually eradicate the disease.

“A malaria vaccine that stimulates an efficient immune response against the proteins that malaria parasites use to burrow into red blood cells would stop the parasite from replicating and prevent severe illness.”

Dr Fowkes said the review of existing studies had illustrated how little was known about blood-stage malaria proteins and their suitability for use in vaccine development.

“Only about six blood-stage malaria proteins have been well studied out of a potential 100 proteins,” she said. “There is an urgent need for malaria researchers to better coordinate their research efforts on these proteins. This will take us one step closer to developing an effective vaccine.”

The research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and a Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Support grant.

Media Contact

Penny Fannin EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.wehi.edu.au

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors