MELBOURNE, June 16 (UPI) -- A new type of malaria vaccine may block parasites that spread the disease through mosquito bites from developing in the insects' guts, and could eventually help to eradicate the disease.
A protein called AnAPN1 is essential to the parasites' development, and researchers discovered how to block the development with the help of the Australian Synchrotron, which allowed them to see the structure of the protein for the first time.
"This type of vaccine won't boost people's immunity to malaria, but instead it will provide a delayed benefit to the individual by protecting the entire community from parasite transmission," said Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan from the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a press release. "Ultimately it could lead to a reduced number of infected mosquitoes and the eventual elimination and eradication of the disease."
The idea for the vaccine was borne of already-vaccinated individuals in malaria-endemic countries producing antibodies to AnAPN1. When a mosquito bites a person who has been vaccinated, antibodies from the person are ingested by mosquitoes, preventing parasites from developing inside the insect.
"The Australian Synchrotron was critical in providing detailed imaging of the structure of AnAPN1. In combination with other experimental data, the structure enabled us to pinpoint the binding site of AnAPN1 antibodies that can and can't block parasite development," said Dr. Natalie Borg, of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University.
The study is published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
