Malaria Vaccine Set to Begin Human Trials

So much progress on preventing and treating malaria has been made recently that one is tempted to say the parasite's days are numbered. On the heels of a number of important discoveries, each of which could play a significant role in reducing deaths caused by the dreaded disease, now word is out that a potential malaria vaccine is headed into human trials, according to Darren Quick of gizmag.com.

Again, we have the largesse of Bill Gate's Foundation to thank for providing more than $17 million in funding for the project. The Foundation has been very active in funding anti-malaria projects.

The researchers who developed the vaccine "deleted two key genes in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite," according to gizmag.com. "By removing the genes the malaria parasite is halted during its liver infection phase, preventing it from spreading to the blood stream where it can cause severe disease and death."

The vaccine was developed by scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, which released a statement saying it has made "the world’s first genetically-modified strain of the malaria parasite to be used as a live vaccine against the disease. The vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers from the United States, Japan and Canada, will be trialled in humans from early next year, according to an Institute release."

Professor Alan Cowman, shown in the photo above, who leads the institute’s Infection and Immunity division, said in a statement that his team succeeded in "genetically modifying the parasite and thereby preventing its invasion of red blood cells." An article on the development appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. The new vaccine uses techniques that have been successful in curbing other disease like influenza and polio.

The vaccine has been tested in the lab and in mouse studies, and, according to Cowman, it "offered 100 percent protection against malaria infection."

Cowman's team includes Doctors Matthew O’Neill and Alex Maier from the Institute. Other members are from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research and the University of Maryland.

Human trials of the vaccine begin in 2010 at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland.

Photo courtesy of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.