Research on Malaria-Resistant Children in Tanzania Leads to Promising
New Vaccine Target
By ANDREW C. REVKIN MAY 23, 2014 7:45 AM
The quest for effective malaria vaccines has been long and
challenging, so it's important not to overplay a single study. But
there is real promise in fresh findings reported by researchers in
Science today. The work centers on a parasite protein, named PfSEA-1
by the authors, that was isolated after analysis of blood samples in
resistant and susceptible Tanzanian toddlers. Paul Rodgers has a
really nice piece on the paper in Forbes. Here's an excerpt:
They also looked back through their data and found that Tanzanian
children with the antibodies [to the PfSEA-1 protein] did not suffer
severe malaria. And among 138 Kenyan adolescent boys and men recruited
for an earlier study, those with the antibodies had a significantly
lower number of parasites than those without.
"Most vaccine candidates for malaria have worked by trying to prevent
parasites from entering red blood cells,' said Dr Jonathan Kurtis of
Rhode Island Hospital, the team's spokesman. "We've taken a different
approach. We've found a way to block it from leaving the cell once it
has entered. It can't go anywhere. It can't do any further damage.
"We're sort of trapping the parasite in the burning house." He writes
that the research is on a fast track from successful mouse trials
toward human trials. Read the rest of the article here.
Happily, given its significance in developing countries, the paper,
"Antibodies to PfSEA-1 block parasite egress from RBCs and protect
against malaria infection," is not behind the Science subscription
wall. Here's the editors' summary:
Progress toward an effective malaria vaccine
The history of efforts to develop a malaria vaccine has been long and
difficult. Raj et al. probed for molecules produced by this blood
parasite that are recognized by natural immune responses of people
living in malaria-endemic areas of Africa. One, PfSEA-1, blocked
parasite exit from red blood cells. Vaccination experiments with mouse
malaria showed almost fourfold reduction in parasitemia; moreover,
passive transfer of PfSEA-1 antibodies transferred protection from
mouse to mouse. Encouragingly, the presence of PfSEA-1 antibodies
correlates with significant protection from severe malaria in children
and adolescents from Kenya and Tanzania.
There's more from the National Institutes of Health and the BBC.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/research-on-malaria-resistant-children-in-tanzania-leads-to-new-vaccine-approach/&source=s&q=Dot+Earth+Blog:+Research+on+Malaria-Resistant+Children+in+Tanzania+Leads+to+Promising+New+Vaccine+Target
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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