WOTRO board member makes large step in the development of a vaccine against malaria

14 augustus 2009

Researchers from the St Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, under the direction of WOTRO board member Professor Sauerwein, were able to protect Dutch volunteers against malaria within a couple of months. The development of a vaccine against malaria has come a step closer.

Volunteers who had never had malaria, and possessed no immunity to the disease, were stung several times by the mosquito, while simultaneously being given the anti-malaria medicine chloroquine. As a result they developed an immune reaction without getting sick. Several months later they were stung again, without the protection of chloroquine, and the volunteers did not get ill again. This showed that the built-up immunity provided sufficient protection. According to the researchers, the secret lies in a specific group of defensive cells, the so-called multifunctional T-cells, which played a major role in this reaction of defence.

This study shows that there are possibilities to build up efficient and total protection against malaria, which is a hopeful starting point for the development of a vaccine against malaria.

Protection against a Malaria Challenge by Sporozoite Inoculation. Meta Roestenburg, M.D., Matthew McCall, M.D., Joost Hopman, M.D., Jorien Wiersma, Adrian J.F. Luty, Ph.D., Geert Jan van Gemert, B.Sc., Marga van de Vegte-Bolmer, B.Sc., Ben van Schaijk, M.Sc., Karina Teelen, Theo Arens, Lopke Spaarman, B.Sc., Quirijn de Mast, M.D., Will Roeffen, Ph.D., Georges Snounou, Ph.D., Laurent Rénia, Ph.D., André van der Ven, M.D., Cornelus C. Hermsen, Ph.D. and Robert Sauerwein, M.D. The New England Journal of Medicine, 361;5, July 30, 2009.