Cellular research uncovers potential avenue to treating malaria

Scientists have isolated a single receptor on the surface of red blood cells that could prove key to future vaccine treatments for malaria.

Using techniques developed at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, researchers have found that the most deadly species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, relies on this receptor to invade cells and cause illness.

This is the first time that a protein has been discovered that is universally relied upon by parasites, with further research showing that blocking the interaction can prevent access to cells.

As such, it is thought that this receptor could now be targeted as a means of creating a malaria vaccine that is far more effective than any that are currently in development.

Professor Adrian Hill, Wellcome Trust senior investigator at the Jenner Institute, Oxford, said: "Recent reports of some positive results from ongoing malaria vaccine trials in Africa are encouraging, but in the future more effective vaccines will be needed if malaria is ever to be eradicated."

This comes after GlaxoSmithKline published positive clinical trial data from its study of the advanced malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S last month.