Researchers say they have taken a significant step in developing a vaccine to protect pregnant women against malaria.
Alongside children, women going through their first pregnancies are the most vulnerable to malaria – and can suffer fatal reactions as well as damage to their babies.
However mothers with several children develop immunity – leading scientists to think a vaccine could be developed.
French researchers say they have made a scientific breakthrough in the search to find the vaccine.
Women are vulnerable because the malaria parasite infects red blood cells and then creates a reaction in the placenta. After several pregnancies, women can develop immunity to the reaction in the placenta
The scientists at the Unité Bases Génétiques et Moléculaires des Interactions de la Cellule Eucaryote say they have cracked the secrets of a large protein called var2CSA, which plays a key role in pregnancy-associated malaria.
The findings have been reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A spokesman said: "For the researchers, these results constitute a first step in the race to develop vaccinal or therapeutic approaches aimed at protecting women during their first pregnancies as well as their unborn foetuses."
PNAS, 1 March 2010
Leave a Reply