The world’s first malaria vaccine: Hope and challenge / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

The RTS,S/AS01 is a subunit malaria vaccine against the pre-erythrocytic stage of Plasmodium falciparum. After over 30 years of research and development and clinical trials, this vaccine has been recommended by the WHO for use among children living in highly malaria endemic areas. Although the RTS, S/AS01 vaccine suffers from problems of a low protective efficacy (about 30%), need of four doses and short duration of protective immunity, this malaria vaccine is expected to save tens of thousands of children’s lives, and avoid tens of millions of malaria cases annually, because there have been tens of thousands of childhood deaths due to malaria recently. The introduction of the RTS, S/AS01 vaccine is therefore, widely accepted as a milestone in the history of battle against malaria, which brings a hope to contain malaria and even eventually eliminate malaria. Although there are still multiple challenges in the development of a satisfactory malaria vaccine, the success of the RTS, S/AS01 malaria greatly facilitates the progress towards the development of parasitic disease vaccines, and a more perfect malaria vaccine deserves expectations.

A novel isothermal amplification assay improves the capability for the field rapid detection of parasitic diseases / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

With the rapid development of molecular biology, the isothermal amplification technique has been used for the nucleic acid detection of parasites and other pathogens due to its high efficiency and rapid and simple procedures, and has become an important tool to promote the field detection and control of parasitic diseases. Recombinase-aided isothermal amplification assay (RAA), a novel isothermal amplification technique, which is simple and easy to perform, rapid for field detection, no need for high-end equipment, and rapid field detection, may amplify the target gene fragments within 5 to 20 min under an isothermal condition (usually 37 to 42 ℃) and achieve a real-time observation of the amplification results. RAA has been successfully employed for the nucleic acid detection of a wide range of parasites and other pathogens to date, and has shown a high sensitivity and specificity. Notably, such an assay is suitable for the large-scale field detection in non-lab environments, and is therefore considered to have a potential value of application in rapid field detections.

Analysis of var genes cloned from a Plasmodium falciparum isolate in China

OBJECTIVE@#To analyse the var gene repertoire and characterise the chondroitin sulphate A (CSA)-binding activity of the Duffy-binding like (DBL) domains encoded by the var2csa gene of a Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) isolate in Hainan Province, China.@*METHODS@#The sequences of var DBL1 regions were PCR-amplified, sequenced and the sequence characteristics was bioinformatically analysed. Recombinant proteins encoded by the var2csa genes were expressed and purified. The binding activities of the recombinant proteins to CSA receptor was detected by ELISA assays.@*RESULTS@#Fifty six unique DBL α sequences were obtained, and the sequences represented similar diversity to the var genes of the genome parasite 3D7. There are two var2csa genes in the P. falciparum isolated from Hainan Province. Unlike in other falciparum parasites such as HB3, the two var2csa genes are more diverged. The receptor-binding capacity of DBL-5ε and DBL-6ε domains of HN var2CSA was studied.@*CONCLUSIONS@#This work represented the diversity of var genes of a P. falciparum isolate in China.