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Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other vertebrates. Human malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. Symptoms usually begin 10 to 15 days after being bitten by an infected Anopheles mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.
Plasmodium falciparum is a unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, and the deadliest species of Plasmodium that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito and causes the disease's most dangerous form, falciparum malaria. It is responsible for around 50% of all malaria cases. P. falciparum is therefore regarded as the deadliest parasite in humans. It is also associated with the development of blood cancer and is classified as a Group 2A (probable) carcinogen.
Merozoitesurface proteins are both integral and peripheral membrane proteins found on the surface of a merozoite, an early life cycle stage of a protozoan. Merozoite surface proteins, or MSPs, are important in understanding malaria, a disease caused by protozoans of the genus Plasmodium. During the asexual blood stage of its life cycle, the malaria parasite enters red blood cells to replicate itself, causing the classic symptoms of malaria. These surface protein complexes are involved in many interactions of the parasite with red blood cells and are therefore an important topic of study for scientists aiming to combat malaria.
Malaria vaccines are vaccines that prevent malaria, a mosquito-borne infectious disease which annually affects an estimated 247 million people worldwide and causes 619,000 deaths. The first approved vaccine for malaria is RTS,S, known by the brand name Mosquirix. As of April 2023, the vaccine has been given to 1.5 million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission. It requires at least three doses in infants by age 2, and a fourth dose extends the protection for another 1–2 years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30%.
The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) is a learned society for the arts and sciences based in Accra, Ghana. The institution was founded in November 1959 by Kwame Nkrumah with the aim to promote the pursuit, advancement and dissemination of knowledge in all branches of the sciences and the humanities.
Pregnancy-associated malaria (PAM) or placental malaria is a presentation of the common illness that is particularly life-threatening to both mother and developing fetus. PAM is caused primarily by infection with Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous of the four species of malaria-causing parasites that infect humans. During pregnancy, a woman faces a much higher risk of contracting malaria and of associated complications. Prevention and treatment of malaria are essential components of prenatal care in areas where the parasite is endemic – tropical and subtropical geographic areas. Placental malaria has also been demonstrated to occur in animal models, including in rodent and non-human primate models.
RTS,S/AS01 is a recombinant protein-based malaria vaccine. It is one of two malaria vaccines approved. As of April 2022, the vaccine has been given to 1 million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission, with millions more doses to be provided as the vaccine's production expands. 18 million doses have been allocated for 2023-2025. It requires at least three doses in infants by age 2, with a fourth dose extending the protection for another 1–2 years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30% and reduces toddler deaths by 15%.
Russell J. Howard is an Australian-born executive, entrepreneur and scientist. He was a pioneer in the fields of molecular parasitology, especially malaria, and in leading the commercialisation of one of the most important methods used widely today in molecular biology today called “DNA shuffling" or "Molecular breeding", a form of "Directed evolution".
Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is a secreted protein of the sporozoite stage of the malaria parasite and is the antigenic target of RTS,S and other malaria vaccines. The amino-acid sequence of CSP consists of an immunodominant central repeat region flanked by conserved motifs at the N- and C- termini that are implicated in protein processing as the parasite travels from the mosquito to the mammalian vector. The amino acid sequence of CSP was determined in 1984.
PfSPZ Vaccine is a metabolically active non-replicating whole sporozoite (SPZ) malaria vaccine being developed by Sanaria against Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria. Clinical trials have been safe, extremely well tolerated and highly efficacious. The first generation PfSPZ product is attenuated by gamma irradiation; the second generation vaccines PfSPZ-CVac and PfSPZ LARC2 are, respectively, attenuated chemically and genetically. Multiple studies are ongoing with trials of the PfSPZ vaccines. All three products are produced using the same manufacturing process. These products are stored and distributed below -150 °C using liquid nitrogen (LN2) vapor phase (LNVP) freezers and cryoshippers.
Sanaria is a biotechnology company developing vaccines protective against malaria and other infectious diseases as well as related products for use in malaria research. Sanaria's vaccines are based on the use of the sporozoite (SPZ) stage of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, as an immunogen, and as a platform technology for liver-vectored gene delivery. SPZ are normally introduced into humans by mosquito bite where they migrate to the liver and further develop to liver stages, and eventually back into the blood stream where the parasite infects red blood cells (RBC) and causes malaria. Plasmodium falciparum is the species responsible for more than 95% deaths caused by malaria. The WHO estimates there were 249 million clinical cases and 608,000 deaths in 2022 alone.
Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig was an Austrian-Brazilian immunologist specializing in the development of malaria vaccines. In a career spanning over 60 years, she was primarily affiliated with New York University (NYU). She served as C.V. Starr Professor of Medical and Molecular Parasitology at Langone Medical Center, Research Professor at the NYU Department of Pathology, and finally Professor Emerita of Microbiology and Pathology at the NYU Department of Microbiology.
Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is a family of proteins present on the membrane surface of red blood cells that are infected by the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. PfEMP1 is synthesized during the parasite's blood stage inside the RBC, during which the clinical symptoms of falciparum malaria are manifested. Acting as both an antigen and adhesion protein, it is thought to play a key role in the high level of virulence associated with P. falciparum. It was discovered in 1984 when it was reported that infected RBCs had unusually large-sized cell membrane proteins, and these proteins had antibody-binding (antigenic) properties. An elusive protein, its chemical structure and molecular properties were revealed only after a decade, in 1995. It is now established that there is not one but a large family of PfEMP1 proteins, genetically regulated (encoded) by a group of about 60 genes called var. Each P. falciparum is able to switch on and off specific var genes to produce a functionally different protein, thereby evading the host's immune system. RBCs carrying PfEMP1 on their surface stick to endothelial cells, which facilitates further binding with uninfected RBCs, ultimately helping the parasite to both spread to other RBCs as well as bringing about the fatal symptoms of P. falciparum malaria.
Adrianus Mattheus Dondorp is a Dutch intensivist, infectious diseases physician, and head of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok. He is best known for his research in severe falciparum malaria, a disease that requires intensive care in hospital. He chairs the World Health Organization Technical Expert Group on antimalarial medication drug resistance and containment.
Faith Hope Among’in Osier is a Kenyan immunologist, paediatrician and educator.
Gordon Akanzuwine Awandare is a Ghanaian parasitologist and the Pro-Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Ghana. Prior to his appointment in January 2022, He was the founding Director of the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP). He is the current chairman of the CKT-UTAS governing council and the Africa Global Editor of the Experimental Biology and Medicine (EBM) journal.
Rose Gana Fomban Leke is a Cameroonian malariologist and Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology at the University of Yaounde I.
Sanjeev Krishna,, is a British physician and parasitologist whose research focuses on affordable diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, Ebola, African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and colorectal cancer. Krishna is Professor of Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at St George's, University of London and St George's Hospital.
Stephen L. Hoffman is an American physician-scientist, tropical medicine specialist and vaccinologist, who is the founder and chief executive and scientific officer of Sanaria Inc., a company dedicated to developing PfSPZ vaccines to prevent malaria.
David A. Fidock, is the CS Hamish Young Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan.
References
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- ↑ Admin (2019-12-09). "Emerita Prof. Isabella Akyinbah QUAKYI" . Retrieved 2022-02-28.
- 1 2 "Emerita Professor Isabella Akyinbah Quakyi Awarded The 2019 Clara Southmayd Ludlow Medal | University of Ghana". www.ug.edu.gh. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
- ↑ Admin. "Emerita Prof. Isabella Akyinbah QUAKYI" . Retrieved 2021-03-04.
- ↑ "Quakyi Isabella Akyinbah | The AAS". www.aasciences.africa. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
- ↑ G, Kashmira; EST, er On 3/8/21 at 12:01 AM (2021-03-08). "7 women scientists who defied the odds and changed science forever". Newsweek. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 1 2 "Editorial Team". Journal of Health Sciences Investigations. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
- ↑ "Prof. Quakyi Isabella A. | Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health". www.ug.edu.gh. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
- ↑ "Isabella. Quakyi". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ↑ "Renowned Ghanaian scientist speaks: Vaccines helpful, protocols necessary". Graphic Online. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
- ↑ "African Union regional awards for scientific women "Kwame N'krumah " | Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS)". Archived from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ↑ "African Union regional awards for scientific women "Kwame N'krumah " | Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS)". ecowas.int. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
- ↑ "Isabella Quakyi, MSc, PhD". PATH's Malaria Vaccine Initiative. 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
