Algae researchers at the University of California, San Diego
have engineered potential edible vaccine candidates for malaria.
The proof-of-principle experiments could pave the way to the
development of an inexpensive, edible vaccine to prevent
transmission of malaria, one of the world’s most prevalent and
debilitating diseases. The mosquito-borne disease that affects
more than 225 million people worldwide is caused by protozoan
parasites from the genus Plasmodium. Malaria results in fever,
headaches and even death in seere cases. Antimalarial
medications are available but an effective vaccine has not been
developed. Blocking malaria transmission The scientists used
algae to produce Plasmodium proteins that elicited antibodies
against the parasite in mice and the antibodies prevented
malaria transmission. The study was published in PLoS ONE.
Biologists at UC San Diego collaborated with the San Diego
Center for Algae Biotechnology, which is busy engineering algae
to produce biofuels and other products. Any effe