new paper identifies severe malaria associated parasite proteins that might be vaccine candidates

A new paper from our lab (Tonkin-Hill G et al  The Plasmodium falciparum transcriptome in severe malaria reveals altered expression of genes involved in important processes including surface antigen-encoding var genes. PLoS Biol. 2018 Mar 12;16(3):e2004328. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004328) has identified novel PfEMP1 proteins that are expressed by parasites that cause severe malaria and that could possibly be used in vaccines to protect from severe malaria disease. Approximately 400,000 people die of malaria every year, most of them children under 5 years of age in Africa. A vaccine that protected from severe malaria disease would replicate natural immunity which protects from disease but not infection.