Mosquitoes. The very thought sends shudders up the skin. Those tiny, stealthy, blood-sucking, and absolutely pesky - no, absolutely vexatious insects only bring back bad memories of bites, itching, 24/7 long-sleeves and more itching. I was once bitten by a mosquito on the inside of my finger...while I was awake. Thank God there aren't any in rainy England (although, we are already being drained dry by those pesky taxes). But to me, a tourist in a foreign land, they are just an annoyance. To those that live with them, there is a much bigger threat than just the insect: the Plasmodium parasite which causes malaria.
What is malaria?
Malaria is a tropical disease which is one of the deadliest in the world. There are over 300 million new cases every year with over a million deaths. It is caused by a Plasmodium parasite entering the bloodstream from a mosquito whereby it travels to the liver (sometimes in under 5 minutes) via the bloodstream followed by attacking red blood corpuscles (cells which carry oxygen in the blood) and reproducing. This infecting can lead to diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and nausea (among other symptoms) and sometimes death. Malaria can stay benign in the blood and manifest later on and be transmitted by infected needles and blood transfusions thus making it very dangerous.
As it is a tropical disease, many of the countries affected by malaria are LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries) and so treatments are hard to come by or out of reach for the average person. There is no current licensed malaria vaccine but recent findings by researchers at Oxford University are promising.
The vaccine
New research has shown that 'basigin', a single receptor on the surface of red blood cells, and a protein 'PfRh5' on the parasite are imperative to malaria infection. Using antibodies to interrupt this link of the pathway to enter red blood cells could stop malaria.
In all strains of Plasmodium falciparum tested so far, interrupting the link protected the blood cells from attack. The vaccine which will be developed should prepare the immune system to attack PfRh5 on the parasite.
Current tests seem to so far be effective on animals and testing on humans will begin within two to three years if safety tests are successful.
So what does this mean?
This is brilliant news. The most advanced vaccine prototype at the moment (RTS,S) is only 50% effective so if this is a success, modern medicine will be revolutionised and countless lives saved. Prevention is better than cure and current treatments and drugs are expensive and can have unpleasant side-effects so a single vaccination will save a lot of money and be much more effective at preventing malaria than treatments can be at curing it or trying to prevent it manifesting or worsening.
However, some have said that the parasite will just find another pathway to infect the bloodstream so this one vaccine will not be enough. I feel that if scientists can find a weak link in the chain now, they should be able to find another one in another chain later on as their research accumulates and knowledge of malaria deepens. In my opinion we have to look at the glass half-full; after all, it is the Festive Season.
Random fact: Only female mosquitoes bite humans as they need the blood to help develop fertile eggs. So only half of the mosquito population are the pests I suppose.
Random fact II: When a female mosquito bites, its saliva contains a local anaesthetic to stop you feeling pain (which I guess helps it to not be squashed where it stands) as well as proteins which stop the blood clotting and it is this protein which reacts with the body to form those itchy sores we hate.
This research is by no means a complete halting of malaria but it is definitely a start and shows promise for the future. And if that's not something to look forward to then I don't know what is.
Thanks for reading,
Suhayl.
:)
Sources:
