TOKYO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A nasal vaccine that blocked transmission of malaria from mice to mosquitoes someday could prevent malaria in people, scientists in Japan said.
The experimental vaccine, which contained parasite antigens, blocked the ookinete-to-oocyst phase in the malarial life cycle in which the malarial parasite is fertilized in the mosquito's body, the scientists wrote in the December issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
Mosquitoes that stung and sucked blood from the nasally vaccinated mice were unable to pass malaria to other living beings because the fertilization cycle had been interrupted.
Children in developing countries often are at high risk of infection and death from Malaria. Antimalarial drugs and insecticide-treated bed nets have reduced the rate of malaria, but vaccines are needed for eradication of the infectious disease, the American Society for Microbiology said.
