Scientists are excited with a new breakthrough in development of an effective vaccine against malaria. The latest study finds how malaria acts and how the vaccine would be able to protect individuals from malaria.
For the experiments the researchers blocked more than 15 types of the complex parasite. Gavin Wright, from the UK’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said, “Our findings were unexpected and revealed an Achilles’ heel in the way it invades our red blood cells.”
They are now working to produce a vaccine which can fight all types of the disease, according to a report in the journal Nature.
Dr Wright added, “We are at a very early stage and it may be ten to twenty years before this can be clinically applied but we are excited by it.” His team demonstrated that by targeting the single receptor the parasite was unable to penetrate the red blood cells. It is now hoped that this can be exploited to develop new and effective vaccines, which will be the most cost-effective way to prevent infection. However, for such an approach to work on a large scale the vaccine must be highly effective to ensure immunity.
Professor Adrian Hill, Wellcome Trust senior investigator at the Jenner Institute, Oxford, said, “Recent reports of some positive results from ongoing malaria vaccine trials in Africa are encouraging, but in the future more effective vaccines will be needed if malaria is ever to be eradicated. The discovery of a single receptor that can be targeted to stop the parasite infecting red blood cells offers the hope of a far more effective solution.”
Malaria is caused by a blood parasite that has proved too complicated for conventional eradication programmes based on measures such as better sanitation, drugs and vaccines. A further complication is that the parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes. UNICEF ambassador and actor James Nesbitt, who has seen the effects of malaria in West Africa, said, “Children are most at risk. Scientists should rightly be celebrating this immense achievement, and working to bring a safe vaccine to market as quickly and cheaply as possible.” Malaria transmission is most intense in tropical regions where mosquitoes have longer lifespans. This, along with the strong human-biting habit of African mosquitoes, is the main reason why 85 per cent of the 781,000 malaria deaths worldwide occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the WHO said. About half the world's population are at risk of malaria and in 2010 there were 225 million cases. Most of the deaths, however, occur in African children under five – malaria is responsible for one in five deaths among African infants.
Because Anopheles mosquitoes need standing water to breed, many eradication programmes in temperate regions of the world have worked by relatively simple measures aimed at eliminating the breeding sites – such as the draining of water-logged land. Controlling mosquitoes is still the most effective method of limiting the transmission of malaria. One of the most effective methods at preventing the spread of the disease within a community is using bed nets impregnated with insecticide spray.
Malaria crystal structure offers clues for more effective medications