Seaweed
20-01-10, 12:46 PM
I just found this on Stuff.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/3245691/Malaria-vaccine-breakthrough
Australian scientists are zeroing in on the proteins which could ultimately deliver the world a working malaria vaccine.
Researchers reviewed 33 studies which had investigated cases of malaria infection and the defensive antibodies it generated in a person's blood.
The process allowed the scientists to isolate three key proteins - known by the acronyms MSP3, MSP1 and AMA1 - now understood to play a vital role in the parasite's ability to infect red blood cells.
"It's a protein that the parasite makes ... that it sticks to the surface of the red blood cell, so it attaches and drills its way inside where it is protected from the body's immune response," said Dr James Beeson, from the Melbourne-based research organisation Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
"(Malaria) is an infection of the blood stream and the parasites ... can then spread around the body where they can damage vital organs, particularly the brain but also the lung, kidneys and heart."
The research indicates that a vaccine which targeted these proteins could have the effect of blocking a run-away malaria infection, despite the parasite being inside the body.
However, Dr Beeson said, the parasite was also expected to have dozens of alternative proteins that it could also use to break into the cells.
"What we need to do in a vaccine is target several proteins so that it cripples the parasite, and it runs out of options," he said.
"We know there are over 40 of them that the parasite might be using to burrow into red cells."
Dr Beeson said the three proteins were prime candidates for inclusion in a future malaria vaccine, and work was underway to identifying others that should also be included or ruled out.
The University of Melbourne also contributed to the research, which was published on Tuesday in the international journal PLoS Medicine.
"It has been a very difficult nut to crack really, trying to identify which proteins could form the basis of a malaria vaccine," he said.
"This work takes us a step closer."
Meanwhile, researchers at Q-Pharm Ltd and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have announced a clinical trial as part of an effort towards a malaria vaccine.
Volunteers will be injected with a very low dose of malaria, and two different types of conventional treatment, to test the growth and destruction of the parasite.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/3245691/Malaria-vaccine-breakthrough
Australian scientists are zeroing in on the proteins which could ultimately deliver the world a working malaria vaccine.
Researchers reviewed 33 studies which had investigated cases of malaria infection and the defensive antibodies it generated in a person's blood.
The process allowed the scientists to isolate three key proteins - known by the acronyms MSP3, MSP1 and AMA1 - now understood to play a vital role in the parasite's ability to infect red blood cells.
"It's a protein that the parasite makes ... that it sticks to the surface of the red blood cell, so it attaches and drills its way inside where it is protected from the body's immune response," said Dr James Beeson, from the Melbourne-based research organisation Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
"(Malaria) is an infection of the blood stream and the parasites ... can then spread around the body where they can damage vital organs, particularly the brain but also the lung, kidneys and heart."
The research indicates that a vaccine which targeted these proteins could have the effect of blocking a run-away malaria infection, despite the parasite being inside the body.
However, Dr Beeson said, the parasite was also expected to have dozens of alternative proteins that it could also use to break into the cells.
"What we need to do in a vaccine is target several proteins so that it cripples the parasite, and it runs out of options," he said.
"We know there are over 40 of them that the parasite might be using to burrow into red cells."
Dr Beeson said the three proteins were prime candidates for inclusion in a future malaria vaccine, and work was underway to identifying others that should also be included or ruled out.
The University of Melbourne also contributed to the research, which was published on Tuesday in the international journal PLoS Medicine.
"It has been a very difficult nut to crack really, trying to identify which proteins could form the basis of a malaria vaccine," he said.
"This work takes us a step closer."
Meanwhile, researchers at Q-Pharm Ltd and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have announced a clinical trial as part of an effort towards a malaria vaccine.
Volunteers will be injected with a very low dose of malaria, and two different types of conventional treatment, to test the growth and destruction of the parasite.