New `promising` malaria vaccine developed

Zee Media Bureau/Ritu Singh

A novel new malaria vaccine has been developed by Oxford scientists and has shown promising results in the first clinical trial.

This trial was carried out by researchers led by Professor Adrian Hill of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, along with colleagues from the biotechnology company Okairos.

The vaccine has proved to be quite effective as most of the adult volunteers were completely protected against malaria in the preliminary tests.

It's the first time that a vaccine has been shown to have a protective effect through a sufficiently high immune response involving cells called CD8 T cells.CD8 immune cells are the ones which seen to mount a protective response against malaria and they are important because they are the primary killer cells in the immune system. 

"The vaccine was found to work by inducing CD8+ T cells that target the malaria parasite in the liver," said Professor Adrian Hill.