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The results of a phase 1 clinical trial of monoclonal antibody to prevent malaria have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Professor Jake Baum, Professor of Cell Biology and Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, said:
“The work is a major advance though not wholly unsurprising. You’d fully expect a monoclonal targeting this protein (CSP) to protect especially if, as in this case, the volunteers were challenged with a single strain of parasite. The longevity of protection is very positive. The key will be follow up work in Mali against heterologous (variable) parasites. The other issue is going to be how relevant monoclonal therapy would be for the world’s poorest. As it stands this may indeed be a breakthrough for travellers and military but it’s application to the hundreds of thousands of families that lose children to malaria, in the poorest countries of the world is unclear. So whilst it is an important advance it is unclear to me how it will affect the global burden of malaria. Ultimately, I still maintain the world desperately still needs a cheap, affordable and distributable vaccine against malaria!”
‘A Monoclonal Antibody for Malaria Prevention’ by M.R. Gaudinski et al. was published in NEJM at 22:00 UK time on Wednesday 11 August.
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034031
Declared interests
None received.