Malaria is spread by mosquitoes that inject the Plasmodium falciparum parasite into the human body. Vaccines against malaria have been developed but access to them is still limited. Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have successfully conducted a test in which the malaria vaccine was also spread using mosquitoes.
They developed two genetically modified Plasmodium falciparum parasites. Mosquitoes with the GA1 and GA2 parasite variants then bit 50 volunteers. After 3 weeks, the same volunteers were exposed to mosquito bites carrying the malaria parasite.
It was found that 18% of those exposed to GA1 did not develop malaria while 89% of those exposed to GA2 did not develop malaria. Exposure to GA2 clearly increased the body's antibodies to fight malaria. This is a higher percentage of effectiveness compared to vaccines that have an effectiveness rate of only around 75%.
The researchers want to expand the test to a larger group of volunteers to see how effective this mosquito-based vaccine delivery system is.