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PrintResearchers Find Extreme Genetic Variability in Malaria Parasite
Wed, Oct 14, 2009
Scientists have found new genetic information about the malaria parasite which suggests that it may be even more challenging than previously thought to develop an effective vaccine to prevent malaria infection. Michael Cummings, associate professor of biology, teamed up with researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for
Vaccine Development (CVD) and the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa on this study which showed that the genetic diversity of a single protein (AMA-1) in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, the most dangerous of the five parasites that cause human malaria, is extremely large.
"Applying a molecular evolutionary perspective to the study of the malaria parasite gave us new information about why it has been so challenging to develop an effective malaria vaccine,” says Dr. Cummings, who is also associated with the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. “The genetic diversity we found in the AMA-1 protein was so high that these children could not generally have an effective immune response to multiple malaria infections, and likewise, this variability will potentially thwart the usefulness of any vaccine based on this protein.”
Their findings are published in the Oct 14, 2009 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
Read the University of Maryland School of Medicine News Release
