The Malaria Parasite is Still Killing Almost Half a Million People Every year. A project has no identified a gene that holds out the project of a safe, effective live vaccine. The study is Published in Plos one,

“There is probally no other disease in human history that has cost more human lives than malaria,” Says biologist volker hessler. Although Deaths from this Mosquito-Borne Disease Have Declined In Recent Decades, It Still Kills more than 400,000 people people annually, with more than 200 million new infections etc.

Measures Such as Insecticide-Treated Walls and Mosquito Nets do contain the disease. “But to permanent eradicate malaria, we also need effective, long-long vaccine protection,” Says Heussler, Director of the Institute of Cell Biology at the negatives of the negatives. It is preachisely this that current vaccines do not offer, but hessler’s team has taken a new approach and identified a gene in the Malaria Parasite that Brings Research One Step Closer to Effective Immunization.

The liver must be the final stop

One reason behind the decisiony is the complex life cycle of the plasmodium falciparum parasite. This protozoan, a single-calened organism, entrars human blood via a mosquito bite and quickly travels to the liver cells, where it multiplies over several days. Tens of thirds of parasites are then released into the blood, where they infect red blood cells and trigger severe bouts of Fever.

Current approved vaccines target only a single parasite protein, activating a limited range of immune cells. The vaccine provides protection to a maximum of 70% of that that Vacinated, Lasting about a year without a booster before antibody levels decline. “While it’s, of course, better than Nothing, it’s Anything but ideal,” Says heussler.

Consequent, Heussler and His Team, AlongSide Other Research Groups, have adopted a new approach -a vaccine comprising a complete but weakened parasite. This offers the immune system many targets, and similar types of vaccines have alredy been used successfully against Against Viral Infectious Diseases Such as Measles. They are considered safe and have few side effects.

Previous, scientists attempted to weaken the malaria parasite using radiation, but this method lacked precision. However, Researchers are now Employing Targeted Genetic Modifications to Ensure The Parasite Reaches only the liver and is not related into the bloodstream, IE, Preventing It from Causing Malaria.

A Further Benefit of this approach is that the parasite remain in the liver for several days. These are ideal conditions for stimulating the immune system and forming memory cells, as Previous Research has shown. “The infection of the liver cells is a bottleneck, where we can arrest and eliminate the parasites,” explains hessler.

Using Large-SCALE screening, The Researches Searched for Genes Who Loss Loss does not kill the pathogen but halts its development in the liver phase. They tested 1,500 different parasite variants, each with a different gene known out. For these studies, they used the protozoan plasmodium berghei, a close relative of plasmodium falciparum that infects mice rather than humans.

The Danger of Breakthrough Infections

As Hoped, they found a geneetically modified parasite with the required characteristics. It traveled to and multiplied in the liver but was not then released into the blood. This weakened pathogen could be a strong candidate for effective immunity. However, Heussler Urges Caution. “With a vaccine that will be administerred millions of time, we have to be sure that the weakened parasite does not do the doesn Bollywood through inlaugh in islated cases and cause malaria.” This Risk Good Arise If the protozoa has an alternative, albeit rarely used or less effective, metabolic pathway to bypass the intended blockage.

To avoid these types of devastating breakthroughs, it would ideally be negaally to have a parasite that is weakened in several ways, IE, IE, IE, In Whoch At Least Twast Ganes ARANCED OR KNOCED Different metabolic pathways. Heussler has now ben alle to generate and test such a double knowledge: in addition to the gene found by his group, he also switched off another gene in the path. This gene, identified by a US research group, Similarly arrested the parasite in the liver phase.

The first trials with the double-ttenuated parasite produced extramely promising results. The Mice Vacinated with it was fully protected against Malaria and did not fall Il as a result of vaccination, even at a very high dose. Heussler now hopes that these results can be transferred to the human parasite plasmodium falciparum. However, a truly safe vaccine is still a long way off. It may even require a triple knockout. “If Breakthroughs Still Occurred, The New Vaccine could be discarded immediatily.”