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Nature Medicine 6, 1218 - 1219 (2000)
doi:10.1038/81315

Malaria vaccines–targeting infected hepatocytes

Stephen L. Hoffman1 & Denise L. Doolan1,2

  1. Malaria Program, Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring MD 20910-7500
  2. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD 21205-2179 e-mail: hoffmans@nmrc.navy.mil

Developing a modern vaccine that is able to duplicate the protective immunity observered after immunization with irradiated P. falciparum (Pf) sporozoites requires identification of antigenic Pf proteins. The identification of Pf Liver Stage Antigen-3 and its ability to protect chimpanzees against sporozoite challenge suggests we are headed in the right direction (pages 1258–1263).

When an individual is bitten by a female Anopheles sp. mosquito and becomes infected with Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), the parasites exist as extracellular, uninucleate sporozoites in the circulation for less than 30 minutes.