|
 Malaria is a preventable disease caused by parasites transmitted to
people through bites from infected mosquitoes. According to the
World Health Organization, malaria caused an estimated 409,000
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria deaths
worldwide in 2019, with 67% being children under 5.
The only licensed malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, developed by
GlaxoSmithKline, is around 30% effective.
NIH's early-stage study, which enrolled 40 healthy adults, tested
whether a monoclonal antibody called CIS43LS could safely provide a
high level of protection from malaria following controlled exposure
to mosquitoes carrying the disease-causing Plasmodium falciparum
parasite.
Fifteen volunteers were exposed to bites from the mosquitoes. None
of the nine who received CIS43LS developed malaria, compared with
five of the six who did not receive the drug.
Monoclonal antibodies are manufactured copies of disease-fighting
proteins called antibodies. They have been approved or authorized
for emergency use for inflammatory diseases, cancer and viral
infections such as COVID-19. NIH's latest study is the first to show
monoclonal antibodies can prevent malaria.
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 The findings indicate that one
dose of CIS43LS can prevent malaria for up to
nine months, and no safety concerns were
identified, the NIH said.
"Monoclonal antibodies may represent a new
approach for preventing malaria in travelers,
military personnel and healthcare workers
traveling to malaria-endemic regions," said
study coauthor Robert Seder, chief of the
Cellular Immunology Section of the NIH's Vaccine
Research Center Immunology Laboratory.
Preventing malaria for several months with a
single dose of CIS43LS could also be valuable in
regions where malaria cases increase during
rainy seasons, the NIH said in January.
Results of a larger, mid-stage trial being
conducted to assess CIS43LS during a six-month
malaria season in Mali are expected in 2022.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru;
Editing by Nancy Lapid and Jonathan Oatis)
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