Taking a Bite out of Malaria: Controlled Human Malaria Infection by Needle and Syringe
Abstract
In this issue of AJTMH, Roestenberg and colleagues report that healthy adults can be infected by the intradermal injection of aseptic, purified, vialed, cryopreserved Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ Challenge). Because of the potential of this challenge in a bottle to standardize and dramatically expand the use of controlled human malaria infections (CHMI) for assessment of malaria vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics, and naturally acquired immunity and innate resistance to malaria, this approach to CHMI may well turn out to be one of the major achievements in malaria vaccine research and development of the past half-century. CHMI by the bites of five infected mosquitoes has become widely accepted as a safe and informative initial step in evaluating the efficacy of pre-erythrocytic stage vaccines. It has also played a significant role in the development of antimalarial drugs and diagnostic assays and in the assessment of host immune responses to infection. At last count in the published literature, over 1,300 clinical trial subjects had been exposed to CHMI since CHMI using mosquitoes that had fed on in vitro cultures of P. falciparum was introduced in 1986. nvestigators from multiple international centers, together with representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), recently generated a standardized document for the design and conduct of CHMI and a second document for the microscopy methods used to determine the patency endpoint.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA569512
Entities
People
- Judith E. Epstein
Organizations
- Naval Medical Research Center