Samples from malaria vaccine trials reveal the benchmark for immune measurement for conservation, Science translational medicine.

Click on the blue text above to focus on our research on samples from two independent clinical trials of malaria vaccines, Gemma moncunill and colleagues linked features in the immune system to improve vaccine protection for malaria in children and adults.their analysis of RTS, s vaccine and sporozoite immunity provides a general baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of candidate malaria vaccines in the future.malaria continues to pose a huge health burden around the world; the number of malaria cases in 2018 is estimated to be 218 million.RTS, s vaccine is the only candidate vaccine to enter clinical trials, but it shows only mild protective effect.the researchers also tested other alternatives; one approach was to combine attenuated Plasmodium with prophylactic drug therapy (CPS immunization), which showed 100% efficacy in adult experimental trials.however, the introduction of malaria vaccines has been seriously hampered by limited understanding of the immune mechanisms and the lack of immune substitutes that can predict vaccine efficacy.using transcriptional analysis of immune cells and systems biology techniques, moncunill et al. Examined blood samples from 24 adult volunteers immunized with CPS and 255 African children who participated in the RTS, s vaccine phase 3 trial.the authors made some unexpected findings; for example, compared with those who received the unprotected vaccine, children receiving RTs and s vaccine had little change in gene expression.however, the team did find a set of genes associated with protective response in the experiment, and observed that TLR4 and protein NF - κ B both play an important role.some people also show pre vaccination characteristics related to protection, which can help identify non immune responders who may benefit from pre vaccination or other interventions.welcome to Science official account click below to read the original English text.