Tanzanian children in malaria breakthrough

 

By The Citizen Report and Agencies

In Summary

“It turns out that antibodies to this protein prevent the schizont (a stage in the malaria lifecycle) from getting out of the red cell. We trap the parasite inside the red cell,” Dr Kurtis said.

 Dar es Salaam. A scientific study that involved over 700 Tanzanian children has taken the world closer to a malaria vaccine that could eradicate the killer disease, The Citizen has learnt.

After a series of discoveries raised false hopes in the past three decades, American scientists finally have discovered a blood protein in some of the children, which gave them natural resistance to the parasite that causes the disease, according to findings released on Friday.

The researchers have developed a vaccine based on antibodies found in about six per cent of the 785 Tanzanian children examined in the study.

The UK’s Independent newspaper reported that the children had antibodies to a malaria protein that is vital for the parasite to complete its lifecycle within the human body.

Tests on laboratory mice have shown that the vaccine can protect the animals against the most lethal strains of malaria and scientists are confident that it will be both safe and effective in humans.

It is believed to be the first time that scientists have made a candidate malaria vaccine based on a blood protein that confers natural resistance to young children. The breakthrough could lead to the first clinical trials of the prototype vaccine within two years, the researchers said.

Malaria kills about 600,000 people each year, most of them children under the age of five living in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. There are more than 200 million cases a year worldwide and many children who survive infection do often develop health problems later in life.

Although the new candidate vaccine, known as PfSEA-1, has only been tested on mice, scientists behind the research are excited about its potential in terms of protecting vulnerable children against the most dangerous forms of severe malaria.

The new PfSEA-1 vaccine works by trapping malaria parasites inside infected red blood cells so that they cannot emerge to infect other red blood cells and complete their complicated life cycle, said Dr Jonathan Kurtis of Rhode Island Hospital in the US.

“It turns out that antibodies to this protein prevent the schizont (a stage in the malaria lifecycle) from getting out of the red cell. We trap the parasite inside the red cell,” Dr Kurtis said.

“Most vaccine candidates for malaria have worked by trying to prevent parasites from entering red blood cells; we’ve taken a different approach. We’re sort of trapping the parasite in the burning house.

“We’ve found a way to block it from leaving the cell once it has entered. If it’s trapped in the red blood cells, it can’t go anywhere. It can’t do any further damage,” Dr Kurtis added