Grant: Project Grant

Over 125 million pregnancies annually are at risk of complications from malaria that threaten the life of the mother and fetus. A vaccine to protect pregnant women from malaria is urgently needed and can save an estimated 10,000 mothers and 200,000 newborns from death, particularly in Africa. Currently, vaccines are under development that target a specific protein made by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum when it infects the placenta. Women who are immunized with this protein will form antibodies that should protect them from placental infection. However, this approach is not likely to be highly effective since the parasite has the ability to produce different forms of the protein and hide from the vaccine. We made the unexpected discovery that women in Colombia have some natural protection from malaria in pregnancy. As we examined this further, we found that women who had been exposed to a different species of malaria found in Colombia called Plasmodium vivax were protected against falciparum malaria, the main species that endangers pregnant women. We already discovered one protein from P. vivax that contains a segment that can induce antibodies to protect against falciparum malaria in pregnancy. In this project we will generate different synthetic versions of this segment and pursue these as vaccine candidates against falciparum placental malaria. We will measure how these candidates induce protective antibodies in pre-clinical studies of mice, in preparation for future vaccine trials in humans. The ultimate goal is to exploit these findings to develop an alternative approach to a vaccine to protect pregnant women from malaria.