New mRNA vaccines may reduce risk of malaria infection: study

“Malaria elimination will not happen overnight, but such vaccines could potentially eliminate malaria from many parts of the world,” said Nirbhay Kumar, a professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. The study was published Thursday in the journal nPJ Vaccine.

Kumar said in a statement, “The mRNA vaccine technology can really be a game changer. We saw how successful this technology was in fighting Covid and for this study we adapted it and used it to combat malaria.” to develop tools for

The study reported that the vaccine would introduce messenger RNA – a piece of RNA that is essential for protein production – that matches a viral protein.

Anopheles mosquitoes, P. falciparum along with P. vivax, are responsible for more than 90% of malaria cases and 95% of malaria deaths globally. Most of the deaths are seen in sub-Saharan Africa, but malaria strikes half the world’s population.

How was the study done?

The two mRNA vaccines work in completely different ways, the researchers said.

They immunized a group of mice with an mRNA vaccine that targets a protein that helps the parasite move through the body and invade the liver. Meanwhile, another group of mice is treated with a vaccine targeting a protein that helps the parasite reproduce in the mosquito’s midgut.

These mice were then exposed to the infection causing the parasite. The study found that both vaccines induced a potent immune response in mice and were highly effective in reducing infection in the host and the mosquito vector.

According to the researchers, the presence of protective antibodies during the transmission of the parasites to healthy mosquitoes dramatically reduced the parasite load in mosquitoes, which is an important step in inhibiting malaria transmission.

“These vaccines were highly effective in preventing infection and they almost completely eradicated the transmission potential,” Kumar said.