Malaria vaccine directed against blood stages

Various pathogens are known to escape human complement recognition by recruiting complement regulating proteins to provide protection against the host’s immune system. This immune evasion mechanism was reported for asexual malaria blood stages. The blockage of a complement protein receptor in merozoites should result in increased complement destruction and thereby, may inhibit the completion of the intra-erythrocytic replication cycle of the malaria parasite within its human host. It is, therefore, conceivable to evaluate the efficacy of new malaria-vaccines directed against complement protein-receptor proteins. One example (shown in the picture) would be the blockage of the receptor which binds the human complement regulation factor H protein on its surface (Simon et al., 2018).