Scientists at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Radboud University in the Netherlands have developed a malaria vaccine that could be carried by mosquitoes to boost immunity against the disease.
The vaccine uses a weakened strain of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes a deadly form of malaria.
The vaccine was tested on 67 participants from the Netherlands and the results showed it was safe and delayed the onset of malaria, but did not prevent infection.
In a second trial, participants received two versions of the vaccine, GA1 and a modified version of GA2, and results showed that GA2 provided longer-lasting immunity.
Further studies are needed to determine the long-term efficacy of the GA2 vaccine and protection against different strains of the malaria parasite, according to the developers.
Insects have been used to deliver vaccines before, for example in 2010 Japanese scientists used mosquitoes to deliver a vaccine against leishmaniasis, and in 2022 in the US mosquitoes served as carriers of genetically weakened Plasmodium parasites.