PHA-Exchange> Human Trials Of Malaria Vaccine To Begin Next Year

[Aviva]

From: Dr Rana Jawad Asghar <jawad at alumni.washington.edu>

Human Trials Of Malaria Vaccine To Begin Next Year
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003

http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20031217/449_11371.asp

Oxford University scientists plan to begin human trials of a ma-
laria vaccine next year after promising results in mice, BBC
Online reported yesterday.

The mouse experiments produced a strong reaction from "killer T
cells," the immune cells needed to destroy the malaria-causing
parasite Plasmodium.

There is currently no fully effective malaria vaccine, and de-
veloping one has proved difficult because of the many different
strains of Plasmodium. To prevent creating a vaccine that works
only against one of the strains, the British scientists joined
together multiple proteins taken both from the surface of Plas-
modium and from other locations in the parasite.

"Nothing quite like this has been tried before against malaria,"
said Sarah Gilbert, a co-author of the study, which appeared
yesterday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (BBC Online, Dec. 16).