vaccines

This report includes brief summaries of what is known, and major knowledge gaps in disease burden estimation, pathogenesis and immunity, and the challenges with current preventive strategies for malaria in pregnancy.

A quantitative framework is used to explore the potential applications and probable effects of sexual stage or mosquito stage transmission blocking vaccines (TBVs) against malaria.

The outputs of the stochastic individual-based simulations are predictions of the epidemiological impact and comparative cost-effectiveness of conceivable control measures, alone or in combination.

We optimized an antigenic insert comprising the four conserved blocks of MSP-1 fused to tandemly arranged sequences that represent both allelic forms of the dimorphic 42-kDa C-terminal region.

Although policy issues may be more complex for future vaccines, the lead-time between the date of product regulatory approval and a recommendation for its use in developing countries is decreasing.

In this work, C3d exerted differential effects on humoral immune responses after gene gun immunization of mice with plasmids encoding the malaria blood stage antigen MSP142 depending on the nature of the protein Plasmodium falciparum vs. Plasmodium berghei MSP), the localization of the C3d moiety (C-terminal vs. N-terminal), and the presence of putative N-glycosylation sites.

The objectives of this study were (i) to determine whether MSP142 and AMA1 vaccines formulated with the AS02A Adjuvant System were safe and immunogenic in the rhesus monkey model; (ii) to investigate whether MSP142 or AMA1 induced immune interference to each other, or to RTS,S, when added singly or in combinations at a single injection site; (iii) in the event of immune interference, to determine if this could be reduced when antigens were administered at separate sites.

In this review, we discuss the molecular aspects of antigen design, adjuvant advancement and the development of vaccine delivery systems as they are being applied to malaria vaccines.

Important progress has been made in the last years especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with the introduction of strategies to prevent malaria in pregnancy consisting of intermittent preventive treatment and insecticide treated nets. However, their coverage is still unacceptably low and malaria continues to demand a huge toll on pregnant women and their newborns. Thus, there is a need to explore other preventive strategies such as a vaccine against malaria, which combined with the current tools would maximise the protection efficacy.