Scientists close in on Malaria vaccine.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham have not only developed a new antibody against malaria, but also a way to test it.
Gambian adults immune to malaria produce antibodies that bind strongly to a region of a parasite antigen called merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1). The two together then bind to the Fc-receptor (FcR) found on immune system cells in the human and the parasite is destroyed.
In the past, drug developers have had no way to test potential vaccines in the absence of humans and higher primates, which has slowed the progress of investigative compounds.
Instead, the researchers have used mice. Although mice do not get sick when infected with P. falciparum (malaria virus), the scientists haveovercome this by genetically engineering a mouse parasite to produce an antigen that the human immune system recognises.
Then, the researchers altered the mouse’s immune system further so that it displayed human FcRs. Now that the animal model had been developed, the team took the antibodies produced naturally by Gambian’s immune to malaria and used them to develop their own antibody. In subsequent tests of these antibodies, the mice were cured of “an otherwise lethal malaria infection”.
The passive immune response caused by such an antibody, could provide the basis of a new vaccine. Even if this new therapy doesn’t ever make it to market, the development of a in vivo test that Pleass described as “has significant advantages over the use of new world primates”, could enable others to develop malaria vaccines much quicker.