Malaria vaccine work deploys parasite-fighting cells to liver

Prime-and-trap effort harnesses T cells, instead of antibodies, to fend off early-stage malaria infection in mice After an infected mosquito bite, malaria parasites travel from the bite site to the liver. For that reason, the liver has become the target of numerous efforts to develop a potential vaccine. Currently there are no approved vaccines for people against any parasitic diseases, including malaria. Using a novel, liver-targeted vaccination strategy, researchers now have reported the successful testing in mice of a tissue-specific malaria immunization. The results appear in the Journal of Immunology. Dr. Sean C. Murphy, associate professor of laboratory medicine at the University Of Washington School of Medicine, led the research. The team included Tayla M. Olsen and Brad C. Stone, from UW Medicine, and Vorada ‘Eve’ Chuenchob from the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle. Malaria parasites take on a number of different forms during their complex life cycle. The parasite first infects people...