The blood of a Dutch missionary and a girl from Uganda form the basis for new vaccines against malaria. An international research team mapped these antibodies and their mechanism of action in detail. The results are described in two publications in Immunity.
Although rare, some people’s blood can block the transmission of malaria parasites. How do you track down those people and what is in these people’s blood? Researchers at Radboud university medical center have developed a test for this.
They mix the serum of people who may be immune with cultured malaria parasites and feed mosquitoes with it. Occasionally it appears that the serum prevents the parasites from spreading via the mosquitoes.
The researchers screened the serum of hundreds of people in this way. In the end, 2 of them showed a very strong and long-lasting immunity against the spread of parasites.
The research team found more than 100 antibodies in their blood that could play a role in their strong defense against malaria. They saw that the most potent antibodies were directed against the same parts of the proteins. They are now using this information to develop a new vaccine.
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