Early promising results in malaria vaccine trial in MaliJanuary 23, 2008A small clinical trial conducted by an international team of researchers in Mali has found that a candidate malaria vaccine was safe and elicited strong immune responses in the 40 Malian adults who received it. The trial was the first to test this vaccine candidate, which is designed to block the malaria parasite from entering human blood cells, in a malaria-endemic country. Based on these promising results, the research team is now conducting trials of this vaccine in 400 Malian children aged 1 to 6 years. Malaria is a leading killer in Africa and other developing countries, claiming more than 1 million lives each year, most of them children. Lead investigator Mahamadou A. Thera M.D., MPH, and 16 other co-authors of the newly published study are based at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako, Mali. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, supported the trial and helps fund the Center. University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher Christopher Plowe, M.D., MPH, was the co-leader of the study. The trial enrolled volunteers living in Bandiagara, a rural town in northeast Mali with a heavy burden of malaria. In this relatively dry region, almost no new infections occur during the driest month of the year, March, but people typically get up to 60 malaria-transmitting mosquito bites per month in August and September, when the rainy season peaks. A total of 60 participants were assigned at random to receive either a full or half-dose of the candidate malaria vaccine or a licensed rabies vaccine, which served as a control. Each volunteer received three injections, spaced one month apart. Injections began in late December 2004, at the end of the malaria transmission season. As expected, all volunteers had significant levels of antibodies against malaria parasites detectable in their blood at the beginning of the trial, signaling that they had prior exposure to malaria parasites. Those who received the candidate vaccine tolerated it very well and experienced a significant boost (up to a sixfold rise) in levels of vaccine-specific antibodies, while those who received the rabies vaccine had declining levels of antibodies as the rainy season receded. NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases |
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| Related Malaria Vaccine Current Events and Malaria Vaccine News Articles PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative shares strategy for developing 'next-generation' malaria vaccines Marking its tenth anniversary year, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) today unveiled a new strategy that sets the stage for an aggressive push targeting the long-term goal of eliminating and eradicating malaria. Malaria is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, killing nearly 900,000 people a year, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. UM School of Medicine researchers find extreme genetic variability in malaria parasite Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world. First genetically-engineered malaria vaccine to enter human trials Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have created a weakened strain of the malaria parasite that will be used as a live vaccine against the disease. Vaccine Blocks Malaria Transmission in Lab Experiments Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have for the first time produced a malarial protein (Pfs48/45) in the proper conformation and quantity to generate a significant immune response in mice and non-human primates for use in a potential transmission-blocking vaccine. Promising trials of malaria vaccine lead to calls for Phase 3 development Experts are recommending that a malaria vaccine progress to Phase 3 trials following the successful trial of the RTS, S/AS01E malaria vaccine among 5-17 month old children in Korogwe, Tanzania and coastal Kenya, which is reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Researchers characterize potential protein targets for malaria vaccine Researchers from Nijmegen and Leiden have now characterized a large number of parasite proteins that may prove useful in the development of a human malaria vaccine. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers have evidence a vaccine against malaria will reduce infection and disease rates Today, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Center for Global Health & Diseases published data potentially having a strong effect on the three billion people exposed to malaria every year. New nanoparticle vaccine is more effective but less expensive Good news for public health: Bioengineering researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies. Novel approach for rapid identification and development of malaria vaccines Malaria is the world's most frequent parasitic disease, affecting more than 100 countries in the tropical zones, mostly in Africa, and 40% of the world population, with more than a million deaths per year. Antibody-based therapies effective at controlling malaria Passive immunization through the development of fully human antibodies specific to Plasmodium falciparum may be effective at controlling the disease, report researchers led by Dr. Richard S. McIntosh from the University of Nottingham in a paper published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. More Malaria Vaccine Current Events and Malaria Vaccine News Articles |
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