Health
(2009-07-21)
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SEATTLE, WA
(KPLU) -
If you've been out in the woods this summer, you've probably battled mosquitoes. On the bright side, they're not carrying the malaria parasite. Seattle researchers say they've created a vaccine - using genetic engineering -- that could prevent malaria.
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Creating a vaccine against malaria has been a scientific challenge for generations. The disease was wiped out in the U.S. by draining swamps and spraying with DDT. It's still one of the worlds top killers. And the best vaccine only works about half the time. Stefan Kappe at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is trying a new approach. He's figured out how to genetically modify the malaria parasite, so it loses its ability to survive inside humans. He says, once it gets into the liver, it dies. The trick was to delete the genetic info the parasite needs to survive.
Putting it into people is the next step. Getting his parasite into your body -- he hopes -- will be enough to teach your immune system how to kill the real, deadly parasite if you're ever bitten in the wild. Kappe's research is published this week, in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. Later this year he'll be recruiting a handful of volunteers to subject themselves to bites from mosquitoes carrying the neutralized malaria parasite, to test whether it's safe in humans. (So far, it's been tested only in mice.) Those tests will get going at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, DC. Kappe predicts the vaccine will prevent malaria more than 90% of the time.
(To hear the full story from KPLU science and health reporter Keith Seinfeld, click "play" above, and see Related Stories below.)
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