Creating protective immunity against the early liver stage of malaria infection is feasible, but has been difficult to achieve in regions with high rates of malaria infection. Many current malaria vaccines target the pre-erythrocytic stage of infection in the liver, however in endemic regions, increased blood stage exposure is associated with decrease vaccine efficacy, challenging current malaria vaccine efforts.
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine reveal one potential reason for this difficulty in Cell Reports.Their study demonstrates that exposure to the latter blood stage of malaria infection inhibits the formation of the protective immune cells (and their antibodies) that can prevent the early liver stage infection.
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Stefan Kappe, Affiliate Professor of Global Heath at UW and Investigator at the Center for Infectious Disease Research, contributed to this study.