Malarial vaccine shows promising results

By WESM News

BALTIMORE, MD – Researchers at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine and the University of Bamako in Mali, report that a new vaccine developed for the fight against malaria is showing promising results.

Early clinical trials have revealed that the vaccine helps the immune system to produce specific antibodies that prevent malaria parasites from reproducing.

Malaria remains a major global killer, especially of infants and children in Africa.

According to Christopher Plowe, a professor at the University of Maryland, the vaccine attempts to block the malaria parasite from getting into the blood cell. He says that while the vaccine won't completely prevent infection, it will blunt the parasite's ability to multiply and cause disease.

The study, published in a medical journal last week, was conducted in 2004, using 60 adult volunteers in a clinical trial in Mali. The vaccine was developed by the Walter Reed Army Research Institute and the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline.

Source: University of Maryland Medical News, http://medschool.umaryland.edu