Antibodies tested against malaria

by time news
Vaccination of a child in Kenya against malaria. In 2020, the estimated number of cases worldwide exceeded 240 million. BRIAN ONGORO/AFP

DECRYPTION – This technology could be particularly useful in protecting pregnant women and children.

After years of decline, malaria is on the rise. In 2020, the estimated number of cases worldwide exceeded 240 million, and 627,000 people died, the majority of them children under the age of 5. This is 69,000 more deaths than in 2019, two-thirds of which would be directly linked to the impact of the Covid pandemic, estimates the World Health Organization (WHO). Against this bleak backdrop, a recent publication by the New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM) brings a glimmer of hope. An international team presents the data of a phase 1 clinical trial evaluating a new generation of monoclonal antibodies whose single injection could confer a
six month protection against Plasmodium falciparum the main parasite responsible for malaria.

The antibodies, called L9LS, evaluated in this clinical trial are directed against the CSP-1 protein present on the sporozoite form of P. falciparum. «This stage of development is that of the parasite when…

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