New Malaria Vaccine Tested: Turns Out To Be Safe And Efficient

According to a new study published in the Science Translational Medicine, a next-generation malaria vaccine has shown efficient results. This vaccine which uses a weakened form of a malaria parasite has shown safety in a small number of humans.

The new vaccine is called GAP3KO and the researchers of this vaccine seem to have achieved a milestone in the development of vaccine for malaria, reports The Guardian.

The recent study reveals that GAP3KO activates an effective and safe immune response against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.In the study, the researchers used a weakened version of P. falciparum which was developed by removing three genes that the parasite uses in order to enter the bloodstream, infect humans and cause illness.

The vaccine doesn't cause any serious side effect either, reports. The scientists then gave a rodent version of GAP3KO to mice and found that it protected the mice against the malaria infection when they were later given an unmodified version of P.falciparum.

The next stage was to try the new vaccine on the human volunteers. Ten participants were bitten by mosquitoes that had been infected with GAP3KO. The volunteers developed antibodies against sporozoites, the immature forms of P. falciparum parasites that cause human infection. The experiment was termed safe and efficient when none of the subjects developed Malaria.

Malaria is a fatal blood disease which is caused by the bite of female Anopheles mosquito. Plasmodium parasites are transmitted into human blood through the mosquito bite. A bite by an infected mosquito transmits the parasites into the human blood. The parasites then multiply in the host's liver before infecting and destroying red blood cells.

In 2015, approximately 212 million new cases of malaria and around 429,000 deaths were reported worldwide, reports the World Health Organization. The sub-Saharan Africa is the place where more than 90 percent of the malaria cases and deaths occur and the highest number comes from children under the age of five. The disease can be controlled and treated if diagnosed in the early stages.