Malaria Pathogenesis in young children and vaccine discovery

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

In FY2023, we reported human and animal studies to investigate malaria immunology and pathogenesis, and malaria vaccine development. Highlighted in this years summary are results from our publications. Doritchamou JYA, Renn JP, Hviid L, Duffy PE. A conformational epitope in placental malaria vaccine antigen VAR2CSA: what does it teach us? 2023. PLOS Pathogens. May 25: 19(5):e1011370. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011370. Here, we described evidence that residues located in the interdomain-1 fragment of VAR2CSA within the PAM1.4 binding epitope might be critical to broad reactivity of the antibody. Van Eijk AM, Stepniewska K, Hill J, Taylor SM, Rogerson SJ, Cottrell G, Chico RM, Gutman JR, Tinto H, Unger HW, Yanow S, Meshnick SR, ter Kuile FO, Mayor A, Subpatent Malaria in Pregnancy Group. Prevalence of and risk factors for microscopic and submicroscopic malaria infections in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analyses. 2023. The Lancet Global Health. Jun 2. S2214-109X(23)00194-8. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00194-8. We participated in a collaborative project that aimed to describe the epidemiology of submicroscopic malaria infections in pregnant women using aggregated and individual participant data (IPD). The team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published Jan 1, 1997 to Nov 10, 2021 with information on both microscopic and submicroscopic infections during pregnancy from Asia, the Americas, or Africa, identified in the Malaria-in-Pregnancy Library. The analysis used IPD (when available) and aggregated data. Estimates of malaria transmission intensity and sulfadoxinepyrimethamine resistance, matched by study location and year, were obtained using publicly available data. The search identified 87 eligible studies, 68 (78%) of which contributed to the analyses. Of these 68 studies, 45 (66%) studies contributed IPD (48869 participants) and 23 (34%) studies contributed aggregated data (11863 participants). Overall, the results suggested that during pregnancy, submicroscopic infections are more common than microscopic infections and are associated with fever in Africa. Malaria control in pregnancy should target both microscopic and submicroscopic infections.