Antibody treatment tested as new tool against malaria

Mali, Nov. 1 (BUS) : Research in Africa has found a one-time dose of an experimental drug that protects adults from malaria for at least six months, the latest approach to fighting the mosquito-borne disease.

Malaria killed more than 620,000 people in 2020 and sickened 241 million, mostly children under the age of five in Africa. The World Health Organization is rolling out the first licensed malaria vaccine for children, but it is 30% effective and requires four doses.

The new study tested an entirely different approach to giving people a large dose of lab-made anti-malaria antibodies rather than relying on the immune system to produce enough of the same infection blockers after vaccination, according to the Associated Press (AP).

“The available vaccine does not protect enough people,” said Dr Kasum Kaintao of the University of Science, Technologies and Technologies in Bamako, Mali, who helped lead the study in the villages of Kalifabogo and Torodo.

In those villages during malaria season, other research has shown that infected mosquitoes bite people on average twice a day.

The experimental antibody, developed by researchers at the US National Institutes of Health, was administered by IV that is difficult to deliver on a large scale. But the encouraging results bode well for an easier-to-administer dose version from the same scientists that was tested early on in infants, children and adults.

The research by the US government was published Monday in the “New England Journal of Medicine” and presented at a medical meeting in Seattle.

The antibody works by breaking the life cycle of the parasite that is spread by mosquito bites. It targets immature parasites before they enter the liver where they can mature and multiply. It was developed from an antibody taken from a volunteer who received a malaria vaccine.

The research included 330 adults in Mali who received either two different doses of the antibody or a placebo injection. All malaria infections were tested every 2 weeks for 24 weeks. No diseased person was cured.

The infection was detected by blood tests in 20 people who got a higher dose, 39 people who got a lower dose and 86 people who got a placebo.

The higher dose was 88% effective compared to placebo. The lower dose was 75% effective.

Protection may persist through several months of the malaria season. The idea is that one day it will be used in conjunction with other malaria prevention methods such as malaria pills, bed nets and vaccines. The cost is uncertain, but one estimate is that lab-made antibodies can be given for as little as $5 per child per malaria season.

Antibodies made in the lab are used to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and COVID-19, said Dr. Joanna Daley of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the study.

“The good news is that we now have another immunotherapy to try to control malaria,” Dailey said.

HF