Scientists claim breakthrough in malaria vaccine
Published: January 24, 2005
Scottish scientists claim to have made a significant breakthrough in developing a vaccine for malaria, which every year kills millions of people, including children under five, in south Asia and Africa.
Researchers at Edinburgh University, who led a 17-month study of children in Ghana, have discovered an antibody in their blood that makes them more immune to malaria than those who do not have it, reported the daily Scotsman.
According to them, the disease-fighting molecules take years to develop naturally in the body and many children die before they can build up resistance.
With the new discovery, biologists are striving to develop a vaccine that would stimulate the creation of these antibodies in young children, providing them protection from the disease spread by mosquitoes.
“When you get bitten by a mosquito, the parasite (which causes malaria) goes into the blood and then to the liver where it grows and multiplies by 10,000 to 20,000 before it bursts out into the blood and invades the red blood cells - that’s when you get sick,” said David Cavanagh of the School of Biological Sciences at Edinburgh University.
“The protein we’re working on targets the disease at that blood stage.
“We looked at 280 children in Ghana and took blood samples from them before the malaria transmission season started. We were able to get samples before the mosquitoes started biting to see if the children had antibodies to the protein.
“The important thing we discovered was that those who had the antibodies had a substantially reduced risk of getting malaria than the children who didn’t have it. That has given us the evidence to make a vaccine,” Cavanagh said.
“Any potential vaccine would have to consist of several components targeting the liver stage, the blood stage and so on,” he said.
“Making a vaccine will be a very important step towards controlling the disease in Africa where it kills more than a million people every year and is a major cause of poverty.”
Scientists in Edinburgh are now set to lead a 17 million pound European consortium of malaria researchers to find further breakthroughs in fighting the disease.
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