New malaria vaccination strategy enables superior protection

A new study uncovers a powerful strategy for eliciting an immune response that can combat the parasite during multiple stages of its complex life cycle and describes what may be the most effective next-generation vaccination approach for malaria.  The research was published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe. When an infected mosquito bites a human, the parasite “sporozoite” stage is deposited in the skin. From there, it travels to the liver cells where it copies itself many times and matures for about a week into new forms that infect red blood cells and cause the clinical symptoms of malaria. “Halting Plasmodium infection during the clinically silent liver stage represents an attractive goal of antimalarial vaccination, but is challenging because, if not complete, some parasites can get into the blood and cause disease,” explains study co-author Dr. Stefan Kappe, from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. “Unfortunately, the complexity of the parasite...