A Field Trial to Assess a Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine

In this study of 400 children in Mali, an adjuvanted vaccine based on an apical membrane antigen 1 from the 3D7 strain of Plasmodium falciparum (a blood-stage antigen) showed some strain-specific activity in preventing clinical malaria. An effective malaria vaccine would improve the prospects for eradicating malaria. 1 Vaccines that interrupt the transmission of malaria are emphasized in discussions of eradication, 2 but the ideal malaria vaccine would provide a direct clinical benefit. Vaccines targeting the blood stages of malaria are intended to reduce morbidity and mortality and are being developed in hopes of creating a multistage, multiantigen vaccine. 3 Vaccines based on two polymorphic Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage proteins, merozoite surface protein 1 4 and apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1), 5 were not shown to be effective in recent studies, probably because of insufficient cross-protection against diverse malaria strains 6 , 7 or . . .