Sribas Chowdhury, Adamas University, Kolkata
Malaria is not something unknown to us. Occurring when an infected female Anopheles mosquito bites a person, it accounts for over 400,000 deaths every year. The onset occurs when the parasite Plasmodium enters the human bloodstream and infects the liver cells and finally, the red blood cells. While vaccines are available for the deadly disease, they often provide limited protection against it.
Traditional malaria vaccines:
The vaccines available use attenuated sporozoites (larvae of Plasmodium), which are injected into bodies and then raise an immune response that protects against malaria. Traditionally, the sporozoites are obtained by manually dissecting the mosquito’s salivary glands, which requires extreme precision and patience. There are also chances of contamination, which may hamper the effectiveness of the vaccine created. Moreover, these vaccines require several small doses, with each dose requiring thousands of sporozoites. This makes the whole process of making vaccines complex, time-consuming and expensive.
The mosquito smoothie method:
Researchers at Imperial College, London have discovered a method that can help create a huge volume of vaccines in a short period and a cost-effective manner. The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The process involves making a “mosquito smoothie” and then filtering the liquid according to density, size and electrical charge. What is left behind are pure sporozoites, suitable for use in vaccines. Surprisingly, the sporozoites obtained were found to be more infectious, hinting at the requirement of less dosage. This mosquito smoothie technology can revolutionize vaccinology, making the process less time-consuming, more cost-effective, and less prone to contamination.
The team, led by Professor Jake Baum, then developed and tested their method with human and rodent malaria parasites. The rodent version was then tested in mice. It was found that the vaccine provided 60-70 percent protection when injected in muscle and 100 percent protection (called sterile protection) when injected in the bloodstream.
Future prospect:
The researchers are now keen on testing it out on humans by giving them the vaccine first and then infecting them by purposefully being bitten by an infected mosquito. They are developing the mosquito smoothie method further for mass manufacture of sporozoites under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions to make a vaccine for human trials. Looking beyond the arena of vaccines, this method can also help in a deeper study of the liver stage of malaria and open up new insights. This can lead to discoveries of newer drugs and vaccine regimes for the deadly disease.
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Reference:
- Blight, J., Sala, K. A., Atcheson, E., Kramer, H., El-Turabi, A., Real, E., Dahalan, F. A., Bettencourt, P., Dickinson-Craig, E., Alves, E., Salman, A. M., Janse, C. J., Ashcroft, F. M., Hill, A. V., Reyes-Sandoval, A., Blagborough, A. M., & Baum, J. (2021). Dissection-independent production of Plasmodium sporozoites from whole mosquitoes. Life science alliance, 4(7), e202101094. https://doi.org/10.26508/lsa.202101094
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