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Articles

Scientists have developed an antigen for malaria vaccine

Researchers from University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin have developed an antigen (a protein substance that causes the production of antibodies in the body), which can be used to make a vaccine against malaria.

Researchers from the Department of Molecular Biology UMCS reserved that the invention is patent pending and during this procedure they may not reveal further details. They confirm that their antigen can be used as the main active ingredient in a vaccine against malaria.

"There is still a long way from the development of antigen to the vaccine. We will need a lot of money to fund further research. We will also need to conduct field studies in areas where malaria is a current problem" - said the head of the Department of Molecular Biology, UMCS Prof. Nikodem Grankowski.

Malaria is a tropical parasitic disease caused by several species of protozoan called Plasmodium. This parasite is highly adaptive and becomes resistant to medications.

Prof. Grankowski stressed that previous studies in laboratories have focused on selected antigens from individual development stages of Plasmodium, which could result in the development of methods for obtaining human immunity only in those selected cases.

Antigen developed by researchers from Lublin can act at any stage of development of malaria parasite and, as such, used in a vaccine it would offer the chance for full immunity in humans.

Dr. Marek Tchorzewski from the Department of Molecular Biology UMCS said that the development of antigen is the result of years of research on scientific problems related to protein synthesis. Researchers from Lublin have investigated certain protein synthesis mechanisms in the cell, mainly the functioning of ribosomes. "They are nanomachines that synthesize proteins; they are among the most important molecules in the body" - he explained.

Unwilling to disclose further details, Tchorzewski said only that these studies have allowed scientists to understand the function of the ribosome, "understand the functioning of certain proteins", and identify "molecular events", which may allow to acquire a permanent immunity to the disease.

"In the beginning we did not think have a vaccine in mind. We wanted to solve a scientific problem and we did solved it. In solving this problem, it turned out that the solution can be used in everyday life, in the form of a vaccine" - Tchorzewski explained.

He noted that it today would be impossible to determine when the malaria vaccine would be ready. "We still have very advanced clinical trials ahead of us, and these activities are among the most expensive" - noted the researcher.

Antigen studies of Lublin scientists were supported the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which granted PLN 420 thousand to this research project.

Malaria is one of the deadliest infectious diseases - next to from AIDS and tuberculosis. Infection occurs after a person is bitten by a female mosquito of the Anopheles maculipennis species. According to various estimates, each year 1 to 3 million people die from malaria worldwide, the vast majority of them being Africans. So far there is no effective vaccine against this disease.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

last modification: 2011-10-21

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Scientists have developed an antigen for malaria vaccine

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