Stanford Study Of Malaria Vaccine Needs Participants

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 19 Apr 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine need additional participants to complete the first study of a new vaccine against malaria.

The phase-1 clinical trial, which is under way at both Stanford and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., aims to test the safety of and immune response to different doses of the vaccine in a total of 72 healthy adults. It is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Results from this study will allow a second trial to begin in Africa this year.

"This a chance for those who know that malaria causes millions of deaths every year to step forward and help in the search for preventive vaccine," said Cornelia Dekker, MD, medical director of the Stanford-Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Vaccine Program. "It's through the testing of promising vaccine candidates that we may find out how to eradicate malaria."

The study is one of many under way testing a number of potential malaria vaccines, as part of an international effort whose goal is to have a malaria vaccine by 2025 that will protect more than 80 percent of those who receive it.

The need for malaria vaccines has become more pressing in recent months, with reports of a new malaria strain in western Cambodia that is resistant to the most effective treatment, a combination of medications featuring the drug artemisinin. While steps are being taken to contain and eliminate this strain in the region near the Cambodian border with Thailand, the long-term goal is to eradicate the disease worldwide-and that requires successful and widespread immunization.

Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite and is transmitted by mosquito bites. Some 300 to 500 million individuals worldwide have severe malaria cases annually, with as many as 3 million deaths every year. Most of these deaths occur among children and pregnant women in the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

"One of the difficulties in developing a malaria vaccine is that the malaria parasite has a very complicated life cycle," said Dekker, professor of pediatrics and the principal investigator of the trial at Stanford. When an infected mosquito bites a human, it releases early-stage parasites into the victim's blood. In only a few minutes, the parasites have migrated to the liver, where they transform into later-stage parasites that invade red blood cells and cause disease. The vaccine that Dekker and her team are testing is designed to halt these parasites in the blood before they get into the liver. Nearly 100 groups worldwide are working on possible vaccines. Ideally, a number of them will prove effective.

The Stanford/Packard study is looking to enroll healthy adults, ages 18 to 45. Over a 12-month period, participants will make 17 clinic visits to Stanford Hospital and will receive three injections into the upper arm muscle of either the vaccine or a placebo.

Participants will receive $30 reimbursement for each non-vaccination clinic visit and $60 for each vaccination visit. For more information, call (650) 498-7284, e-mail Vaccines_Program@stanford.edu, or visit http://vaccines.stanford.edu/clinical_trials.html.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.

Source
Stanford University School of Medicine

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