Malaria vaccine is possible, researchers say

Dutch scientists say it's possible to develop a vaccine that would offer complete protection against malaria, saving millions of lives.

Researchers at the UMC St. Radboud hospital in Nijmegen have written an article about their malaria research for the The New England Journal of Medicine to be published on Friday. It is remarkable that the world-renowned journal is publishing a study based on only fifteen healthy patients.

The Dutch researchers allowed ten healthy test patients to be bitten about forty times by mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite. The volunteers all took chloroquine, which kills the malaria parasite. None of the ten test patients developed malaria. Five other people were bitten by mosquitoes that were free of the malaria parasite.

A month later all fifteen test persons were bit by infected mosquitoes and none were given chloroquine. Five got malaria, ten didn't. The ten who didn't get malaria were the same who had been given chloroquine in the first phase of the experiment and had built up resistance.

Team leader Robert Sauerwein, a professor of medical parasitology, said: "It was far from certain that the experiment would succeed. In Africa it can take five to ten years for people living in malaria areas to build up resistance."

The difference between Africa and the Nijmegen experiment is probably that the chloroquine limited the infection, allowing the immunity system to keep functioning. When people areinfected without the protection of chloroquine the infection is so massive that the immune system shuts down.

The Nijmegen research focuses on the development of a vaccine based on the entire malaria parasite. Existing vaccines were based on only one isolated egg of the malaria parasite, which proved to be less effective.