Advancement Towards an Approved Vaccine to Target Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria

Abstract

Abstract:Plasmodium falciparum causes the severest form of malaria which kills well over one million persons each year, chiefly children, and results in significant debilitation in hundreds of millions more. This disease has a dramatic socioeconomic impact in endemic countries and thus it is a recurring target for global health enterprises. Increased investment in existing control measures, including insecticide-impregnated bed nets, has been paired with revitalized efforts to develop an efficacious vaccine. Sequencing of the genome of P. falciparum has provided insights into the malaria parasite's complex lifecycle, which, combined with a deeper understanding of the human immune response to infection, has yielded many novel candidate vaccines during the past two decades. Most notable of these is RTS,S which has shown great promise over a long development process, becoming the first candidate vaccine against human malaria to advance to phase III clinical trials. Hence, there is optimism that in the near future RTS,S may become the first ever licensed vaccine against a parasitic disease in humans. However, this is qualified by the need for a better knowledge of its mechanism of protection and questions raised over its long-term therapeutic capacity. While the availability of RTS,S as a validated commercial product is not guaranteed, it is likely to contribute to the continuing campaign against malaria, if only as a forerunner to a fine-tuned second generation vaccine.

COVID-19 and malaria in sub-saharan Africa: Holistic diagnostic approaches may promote effective clinical case management

“…In contrast, malaria is caused by obligate protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium that have a lifecycle which involves a broad array of vertebrate hosts fed upon by haematophagic insects [7]. However, despite very different causative agents in human's malaria shows some clinical features strikingly similar to those of COVID-19.…”

“…Infection of humans is caused by each of five Plasmodium spp. (P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi) that are transmitted via the bite of blood-feeding, infectious female Anopheles mosquitoes [7].…”

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“…Species, strain and antigen specificity of the host immune response, compounded by clonal antigenic variation and geographical antigenic diversity, presents considerable challenges to the design of an effective malaria vaccine for prophylactic or therapeutic use in humans [7]. Nevertheless, candidate vaccines as well as available chemotherapy have met with qualified success in combating genetically related strains of Plasmodium.…”

“…Against this depressing backdrop, the World Health Organization has provided a measure of hope by revealing a global decline in the number of malaria cases in the past 15 years [2]. However, since the parasite has evaded successfully multiple attempts at control and eradication over several decades still novel approaches are required in order to elucidate fully the "what, why and how" of the malaria life cycle, transmission and infection [7]. Only then will researchers be best equipped to combat this major public health scourge.…”

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“…The main approach to malaria vaccine design has been to target one of the developmental stages of the parasite; pre-erythrocytic, asexual blood (erythrocytic) and sexual stages [55]. These different targets, along with examples, are described below.…”