USA — A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests an alternative intervention to supplement the existing arsenal against this lethal disease.
During the six-month high transmission season in Mali, Africa, one dose of an antibody drug protected healthy, non-pregnant adults from malaria infection. A similar trial of L9LS in children ages 5 months to 5 years is also underway in Kenya.
Over a 24-week period, the antibody was up to 88.2% effective at preventing infection, demonstrating for the first time that a monoclonal antibody can prevent malaria infection in an endemic region.
One injection of the same candidate monoclonal antibody (mAb) known as L9LS was found to be safe and highly protective in U.S. adults exposed to the malaria parasite, according to results from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
L9LS is a laboratory-made version of a naturally occurring antibody called L9, derived from the blood of a volunteer who had received an investigational malaria vaccine.
The antibody prevents malaria by neutralizing the parasites in the skin and blood before they can infect liver cells.
The vaccine offers a potential new weapon in the armamentarium that could be used to protect children and pregnant women, both of whom are vulnerable.
L9LS is similar to CIS43LS, a candidate anti-malarial antibody developed by Vaccine Research Center (VRC) and found to be highly protective in a small trial when administered intravenously.
L9LS, on the other hand, is two to three times more potent. Increasing the potency enabled subcutaneous injection, a less expensive and more practical route of administration than intravenous infusion.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium parasites. The need for new malaria defenses is great.
According to the World Health Organization, malaria infected an estimated 241 million people and killed 627,000, 12% more than in 2019.
Sub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate burden of malarial disease, with children under the age of five accounting for approximately 80% of all malaria deaths.
Malaria parasites have developed resistance to many drugs, and the mosquitos that transmit them have evolved to be resistant to some insecticides.
The World Health Organization approved a GSK vaccine last year, and it is now being distributed. However, its variable efficacy highlights the need for new interventions that provide high-level disease protection.
Another malaria vaccine developed at the University of Oxford has yet to demonstrate that it can provide long-term protection.
Meanwhile, there is compelling evidence that a malaria outbreak in Ethiopia this year was caused by the arrival of an insecticide-resistant mosquito species (Anopheles stephensi) in eastern Africa.
The discovery complicates disease-eradication efforts in Africa, where 95% of malaria infections occur, and has concerned researchers because A. stephensi behaves differently than other malaria carriers.
Outbreaks have been difficult to control in Africa recently because healthcare workers and researchers have been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.
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