As a partner in the EU-funded CAPTIVATE project, BPRC collaborates with an international consortium to advance malaria vaccine development. With an estimated 241 million cases worldwide in 2020, a 6% increase from the year prior, malaria afflicts primarily the most vulnerable populations, with children under the age of 5 accounting for 80% of malaria deaths in the African Region in 2020.
Despite success in malaria control through insecticide-treated bed nets over the past decades, recent data indicates that malaria infections are rising globally. The increasing resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides and malaria parasites to antimalarial drugs are a continuing threat to malaria control and elimination programs.
New vaccine strategies
Combatting the malaria parasite is a great scientific challenge for the international community due to its complex biology, which is reflected by the different life cycle stages in both mosquito and humans. The recent WHO endorsement of two malaria vaccines is a major step forward, but they provide only partial protection. To reduce the incidence, the burden and mortality of malaria as well as provide hope of malaria elimination a highly effective malaria vaccine is essential.
CAPTIVATE aims to address this challenge by developing a novel malaria vaccine combination, creating a multi-stage malaria vaccine with targeted >75% protection against clinical malaria worldwide in line with the ambitious goals of the WHO. A potential therapy would involve a combination vaccine targeting the liver and blood stages of malaria.
Multi-disciplinary approach
To design and develop such comprehensive vaccination strategies, CAPTIVATE scientists will combine diverse data sources, including publicly available datasets as well as new pre-clinical non-human primate (NHP) and clinical human data. These datasets will be analyzed with an advanced in silico platform, complemented by experimental validation, to enable in-depth monitoring of T-cell mediated adaptive immunity. This comprehensive approach aims to improve our understanding of protective immune responses and optimize vaccine development.
Want to learn more about this project? Click here to listen to a BPRC scientist and a CAPTIVATE colleague discussing the significance of the consortium and the value of its multidisciplinary approach.