Malaria

The world now has a malaria vaccine, but it won’t be enough to wipe out the parasitic disease

Hot on the heels of the first approved vaccine for malaria, researchers are racing to develop even better shots that tackle the parasite at every stage of its life cycle.

Immunologist Robert Seder and malaria epidemiologist Kassoum Kayentao talk to Nature about their work and how they think the parasitic disease could be controlled in the future.

A mosquito hibernation mystery solved, parasites grown in dishes for the first time, and other studies and trials.

Concerns that artemisinin combination treatments are losing their effectiveness against Plasmodium parasites have set scientists looking for alternatives.

Gene-drive technology that can spread antimalarial modifications throughout mosquito populations is maturing, but there are questions to answer before it can be used in the wild.

Vaccinologist Arturo Reyes-Sandoval explains how researchers are edging closer to a much-needed vaccine.

Southern Africa wants to eliminate the disease by 2030, but predicting where and when the disease will strike remains a challenge.

Scientists are racing to control malaria in northern Brazil where the disease is playing a major part in the current health emergency threatening the region’s Indigenous people.

An alternative to E. coli could be a game-changer in the production of recombinant proteins.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria, but have woefully few options. Changes to data collection and the way trials are run could speed up the search for suitable medicines, and are a crucial part of eradicating the disease.

Scientists are exposing the Plasmodium parasite’s inner workings to find new drug and vaccine targets, and stop infections from taking hold.

How Japanese researchers are working to put an end to the deadly disease.

Economic evaluations of public health interventions to prevent malaria should consider the adoption of wider perspectives and the inclusion of non-health impacts, particularly economic development outcomes, such as education. This is especially relevant in malaria elimination settings and in the context of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

On the cusp of Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) elimination, Thailand is accelerating towards zero malaria by 2024. This commentary reviews the heart of its success—effective surveillance—and what else may be needed to reach zero on time.

Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites produced in vitro recapitulate the P. falciparum life cycle from gametocyte to gametocyte without mosquitoes or primates.

In the Sahel region of West Africa, An. coluzzii mosquitoes appear to survive the dry season locally, but the relative contribution of this subpopulation to the persistence of the species in the Sahel has remained unknown. Here the authors use stable isotope tracking to determine the fraction of mosquitoes that undergo aestivation, a state of dormancy that allows them to persist through the dry season and maintain yearly malaria transmission.

Identification in Rwanda of mutations in Plasmodium falciparum capable of conferring in vitro resistance to artemisinin, an essential medicine for the treatment of malaria, underscore the crucial need for surveillance in Africa to safeguard efficacy of life-saving therapies.

John Woodland and Kelly Chibale retrace the tumultuous history of quinine from a medicine — used as a tool for colonialism — to a puzzling chemical target, a fluorescence standard and a key ingredient in popular drinks.

The PfSPZ Vaccine does not protect infants from infection with Plasmodium falciparum, the major cause of malaria.

Nekkab, Malinga, Braunack-Mayer et al. discuss how modelling can be incorporated early on in the research and development of malaria tools alongside clinical evidence and expert opinion. In addition, population models can provide estimates of potential effectiveness of novel interventions to inform product criteria and support decision-making.