GM malaria vaccine 'milestone'
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38509736
GM malaria vaccine 'milestone'
By James Gallagher
Health and science reporter, BBC News website
5 hours ago
A malaria vaccine that uses a weakened form of the parasite has passed a "critical milestone" in human safety trials, say researchers. Doctors used a genetically modified form of malaria that was unable to cause a full infection in people. Trials, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggested it was safe and generated a good immune response.
(snip)
The team at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, in Seattle, deleted three genes from the parasite so it could not infect liver cells. The idea is that "infecting" people with the weakened parasite will expose the immune system to malaria, but the parasite will not be able to complete its lifecycle to cause disease.
Ten people took part in the safety trials. No-one went on to develop the disease and there were no severe side-effects to the treatment. The patients' antibodies were then given to mice, which showed greater immunity when they were deliberately infected with malaria.
(snip)
Sir Brian Greenwood, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC News website: "It is encouraging, but this is a first step toward developing a vaccine. "It is really promising and the evidence presented here is enough for challenge studies [in which people are immunised and then infected with malaria to see if it works]."
(snip)