A ‘human challenge’ study – purposefully infecting volunteers with malaria – has revealed crucial insights into how new, more effective malaria vaccines can be designed. Malaria is transmitted by certain species of mosquitoes and was responsible for an estimated 608,000 deaths in 2022, largely in sub-Saharan Africa.

The trial showed that the principle behind most vaccines – producing antibodies that attach to the pathogen and block it from entering human cells – is only part of the story for malaria infection. Instead, antibodies that effectively ‘recruit’ other parts of the immune system were shown to be more protective against the illness in malaria infection.

The international research team have already isolated one potential route to producing these kinds of antibodies, and are manufacturing experimental vaccines on multiple platforms to identify which one induces the best response.

The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London, Heidelberg University Hospital and the Kenya Medical Research Institute, is published in the journals Immunity and Life Science Alliance.

Lead researcher Professor Faith Osier, Co-Director of the Institute of Infection and Chair in Malaria Immunology & Vaccinology in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, and Director of Chanjo Hub, said: “Malaria is still a serious burden that kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, mostly children under five years old. We have many tools to fight the disease, but progress has stalled, and we badly need malaria vaccines that are highly effective and offer long-term protection.

“Our study shows that the way we have been thinking about vaccines is too narrow in terms of how they might work. These findings could improve vaccines for malaria and beyond, potentially saving many lives worldwide.”