Vaccine for malaria being tested

Further advancements in the fight against malaria have led to the development of an experimental vaccine, which has shown partial success in early clinical trials. Funded by GlaxoSmithKline, a global pharmaceutical company with headquarters in London, the new vaccine could control or even reverse the spread of malaria. This advancement has only been made possible due to the discovery of the specific component of human red blood cells that the malaria parasite Plasmodium needs in order to complete its life cycle.

As a hot topic in world health, advancements in the field of malaria have the potential to be over-sold; critics have dismissed the idea that this vaccine could one day prevent malaria.

As one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world, malaria kills around a million people every year. As a primary cause of both death and poverty in Africa, the fight against malaria has been ongoing for years. The malaria parasite is carried in a vector, the mosquito, and as a living animal it is almost impossible to control the many mosquito populations that are spread across Africa.

If this vaccine really could control the spread of malaria then it would mean hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved each year, but how realistic is the promise that this vaccine could change the world? The parasite Plasmodium is notorious for becoming resistant to drugs that are used to treat malaria; the use of a single vaccine throughout Africa may prove fatal if the Plasmodium were to mutate resistance. Another controversial criticism is that millions of people in Africa are currently starving to death as their livestock are dying from malaria, how could the potential vast number of people saved from malaria survive in countries that do not have enough food?  Thus would more people be saved each year if they tackled the malaria parasite that infects cattle rather than humans?

The Sanger Institute in Cambridge devised the vaccine after discovering a protein, known as basigin, which is on the surface of the human red blood cell. The parasites use this protein to penetrate the cell, and without access to the red blood cell then the parasite could not survive. Researchers have conducted an experiment based on these findings; using antibodies to block the protein receptor, they successfully prevented parasite penetration. After great success in laboratory conditions – the solution was found to be 100% effective – the researchers have also had some success in clinical trials that are currently taking place in Africa. Presently, trials of the vaccine have only shown reduced severity of malaria, increasing the chances of survival. There is currently not enough evidence to show that the vaccine could ever fully prevent malaria.

Students from the University of Manchester are currently completing placements studying malaria in The Gambia in West Africa, with the Medical Research Council (MRC).  Participating students Jason Parr, studying Genetics, and Tom Chisnall, studying Biomedical Science, commented: “The new vaccine hasn’t really changed the work that’s going on here. If the trials go well then things might be different. There’s a lot of focus on optimal vaccination schedules, so if a vaccine was made available then the MRC could become a lot more involved”.

Although eradicating malaria with a single vaccine remains optimistic, the Sanger Institute’s research may have brought us a lot closer to making it possible.