While HELP travels to three different locations in Africa and with Malaria being one of the largest medical concerns there and many other parts of the world, this article only seemed appropriate. Found on BBC News- Health.
By James Gallagher
Health reporter, BBC News
Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes
The
route all strains of the most deadly malaria parasite use to enter red
blood cells has been identified by researchers at the Sanger Institute
in Cambridge.
The scientists involved said the finding offered "great hope"
for the development of a vaccine, which had the potential to be hugely
effective.
Other experts said they were surprised and impressed.
Malaria affects 300 million people each year.
One million die, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.
There are many malaria parasites. Plasmodium falciparum is
the most deadly and researchers at the Sanger Institute acknowledge it
as a "very complex and cunning foe".
It is exceptionally good at evading and bamboozling the
immune system. Within five minutes of being bitten by a malaria-carrying
mosquito, the parasite is already hiding inside the liver.
It then emerges from the liver at a different stage in its life cycle and infects red blood cells, where it starts reproducing.
Difficulty
The human immune system struggles to build up resistance to malaria and researchers have struggled in the laboratory.
There is still no approved vaccine against malaria. Large scale trials of the most advanced prototype - RTS,S - showed it
halved the risk of getting malaria.
The parasite reproduces in red blood cells (infected cell on the right).
This study,
published in Nature, looked at the moment the parasite infected a red blood cell.
They were looking for proteins on the surface of Plasmodium
and red blood cells which were necessary for the parasite to identify
its target and invade.
Others had been found before, but none were universally used.
The team at the Sanger Institute discovered that "basigin", a
receptor on the surface on red blood cells, and "PfRh5", a protein on
the parasite, were crucial.
In all strains of Plasmodium falciparum tested so far, interrupting the link protected the blood cells from attack.
One of the researchers, Dr Julian Rayner, said: "We were able
to completely block invasion using multiple different methods, using
antibodies targeting this interaction we could stop all invasion of red
blood cells.
"It seems to be essential for invasion."
The plan is to develop a vaccine which will prime the immune system to attack PfRh5 on the parasite
Fellow researcher Dr Gavin Wright said a vaccine would have great potential as the target was so essential.
"As a starting point for developing a vaccine you couldn't hope for better," he said.
Prof Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford
University, said that after 25 years studying malaria he was "surprised"
and "intrigued" by the findings.
He said textbooks and academic research suggested that if you
blocked one pathway into the red blood cells, the parasite would choose
another.
He added: "It remains to be seen how easy it will be to
translate into a vaccine, but [for blood stage vaccines] PfRh5 is now at
the top of the list.
"Vaccine candidates will come. If I had to bet, I'd say you'd get some partial efficacy from it."
