Successful malaria vaccine trial

MEXICO (Notimex) .- A group of researchers from Yale University, United States, created a vaccine that, in experimental work on mice, protects against malaria infection.

Rodents act by targeting the specific protein that parasites use to escape the immune system.

Malaria is the second leading cause of infectious diseases in the world and has claimed more than half a million lives in 2013. To date, there is no such thing as a fully effective vaccine, and infected people only develop partial immunity against the symptoms of the disease.

In a previous study, a single protein produced by malaria parasites, the inhibitor of Plasmodium macrophage migration, was described. (PMIF), which removes memory T cells, which fight infections and respond to threats.

In this new study published by the university, that Richard Bucala and his team participated with the company Novartis Vaccines to test an RNA-based vaccine designed to detect PMIF.

Specialists used a strain of malaria parasite with PMIF genetically eliminated, they observed that mice infected with They then used two murine models of malaria to test the effectiveness of a vaccine using the PMIF.

They specified that one model had early liver infection by parasites carried by mosquitoes, and the other, a serious infection in the last stage of the blood; but in both models, the vaccine protects against reinfection.

As a final test, the researchers transferred memory T cells from immunized mice to innocent mice that had never been exposed to malaria, so they were already protected. [19659002] Research shows, first, that PMIF is essential to complete the life cycle of the parasite, as it ensures transmission to new hosts and demonstrates the efficacy of the PMIF vaccine.

The scientist Bucala pointed out that if He announced that the next step is to develop a vaccine for people who have never had malaria, mainly young children. 19659002] Yale University and Novartis filed a joint patent application describing the potential utility of an RNA replicon that encodes PMIF.