‘Mosquito Smoothie’ Innovation Boosts Future Malaria Vaccine Potential
upstart writes:
'Mosquito smoothie' innovation boosts future malaria vaccine potential:
A faster method for collecting pure malaria parasites from infected mosquitos could accelerate the development of new, more potent malaria vaccines.
The new method, developed by a team of researchers led by Imperial College London, enables more parasites to be isolated rapidly with fewer contaminants, which could simultaneously increase both the scalability and efficacy of malaria vaccines.
The parasite that causes malaria is becoming increasingly resistant to antimalarial drugs, with the mosquitoes that transmit the disease also increasingly resistant to pesticides. This has created an urgent need for new ways to fight malaria, which is the world's third-most deadly disease in under-fives, with a child dying from malaria every two minutes.
Journal Reference:
Joshua Blight, Katarzyna A Sala, Erwan Atcheson, et al. Dissection-independent production of Plasmodium sporozoites from whole mosquitoes [open], Life Science Alliance (DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202101094)
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