New Delhi, November 26 (IANS). A small clinical trial based on a late-liver-stage vaccine for mosquito-transmitted malaria found that the vaccine is safe and effective. Malaria kills about 6,08,000 people worldwide every year.
The trial, conducted by researchers at Leiden University Medical Center and Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, showed that vaccination with a genetically modified Plasmodium falciparum parasite produced a positive immune response and provided protection against malaria. It is called GA2.
The study involved 25 healthy adults who had never had malaria before. They chose to be vaccinated with a genetically modified P. falciparum parasite (GA2), which was designed to grow in the liver for a long time.
10 participants were placed in the GA2 group, 10 in the GA1 group, and 5 in the placebo group. Each group included both men and women.
All three groups were given vaccination three times at an interval of 28 days. During this period, participants in the GA2 and GA1 groups were exposed to mosquitoes infected with the P. falciparum parasite, while the placebo group involved exposure to uninfected mosquitoes.
All participants were exposed to controlled malaria infection three weeks after the last vaccination to see how much protection the vaccine provided.
The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that 89% of participants in the GA2 group were protected against malaria. In the GA1 group this figure was only 13%. No one in the placebo group received protection.
Additionally, no participants in the GA2 group developed malaria infection after vaccination, proving that the vaccine is safe.
The researchers also found that the GA2 group showed a stronger immune response (pro-inflammatory response). Both GA2 and GA1 produced similar levels of antibodies, but GA provided additional protection. The reason for this was mainly believed to be the reaction of the cellular immune system.
–IANS
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