Immunity to Malaria and Vaccine Strategies

📖 The Scoop

Malaria, caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium, is a highly prevalent and lethal infectious disease, responsible for 435,000 deaths in 2017. Optimism that malaria was gradually being controlled and eliminated has been tempered by recent evidence that malaria control measures are beginning to stall and that Plasmodium parasites are developing resistance to front-line anti-malarial drugs. An important milestone has been the recent development of a malaria vaccine (Mosquirix) for use in humans, the very first against a parasitic infection. Unfortunately, this vaccine has modest and short-lived efficacy, with vaccinated individuals possibly being at increased risk of severe malarial disease when protection wanes. Thus, to define new ways to combat malaria, there remains an urgent requirement to identify the immune mechanisms that promote resistance to malarial disease and to understand why these so often fail.

The review and primary research articles in this Research Topic illustrate the breadth of research performed worldwide aimed to understand the biology of the Plasmodium parasite, the roles of the various cell types that act within the immune response against the parasite, and the parasitological and immunological basis of severe malarial disease. The articles in section 1 exemplify the different vaccination strategies being developed and tested by the research community in the fight against malaria. The articles in section 2 review important overarching aspects of malaria immunology and the use of models to study human malaria. The articles in section 3 describe the ways through which the Plasmodium parasite is initially recognised by the immune system during infection, how the parasite can directly impact this critical event to restrict anti-Plasmodial immunity, and resolve the roles of key innate cell populations, such as dendritic cells, in coordinating malarial immunity. The articles in sections 4-6 outline the roles T and B cell populations play during malaria, highlighting the activation, diversification and regulation of the crucial cell types during malaria, and discuss some of the reasons adaptive immunity to malaria is often considered so poor compared with other diseases. The articles in section 7 provide up to date information on the pathogenesis of cerebral malaria, bridging our understanding of the syndrome in humans with information learned from animal models. Overall, the articles in this research, many of which are published by leaders in the malaria field, emphasize the imagination and technical advances being employed by researchers against malaria.

We acknowledge the initiation and support of this Research Topic by the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). We hereby state publicly that the IUIS has had no editorial input in articles included in this Research Topic, thus ensuring that all aspects of this Research Topic are evaluated objectively, unbiased by any specific policy or opinion of the IUIS. 

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