MANILA – A Filipino scientist based in the US has developed a vaccine that prevents mosquitoes from spreading malaria, one of the major health problems that plague especially tropical countries in the world.
A report from GMANews-TV, one of the country’s biggest radio and television networks, identified the scientist as Dr. Rhoel Dingalasan, a professor at the molecular microbiology and immunology department of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Interviewed over a GMA-TV newscast, Dinglasan said the vaccine prevents the development of the malaria parasite in mosquitoes, thus preventing its transmission to humans.
GMA-TV also cited a report from the newsweekly “Time†magazine which said Dinglasan has the antigen AnAPNI, which stimulates the creation of antibodies in humans to prevent the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes.
Time also said the vaccine works when a mosquito bites an inoculated person and picks up the antibodies, locking the disease up in the gut of the mosquito.
According to Time, traditional vaccines work by introducing a killed or weakened version of the disease into the body where the immune system spots it and cranks antibodies against it.
Later, if a wild strain of the pathogen comes, one that has the power to sicken or kill, is ready for it.
But the new approach is different, the magazine pointed out as Dingalasan elaborated in an interview with GMA-TV thus: “For the next two years, we are going to be developing the pre-clinical aspects of this vaccine to determine whether or not we could actually make enough vaccines for clinical trials.â€
Dinglasan also admitted it may take five to 10 years for the vaccine to be fully developed and distributed.
He noted that several transmission blocking vaccines (TBVs) against malaria have been developed but were unsuccessful because some caused side effects like skin disorders when tested on humans.
According to Dinglasan, the vaccine he developed has only been tested in human blood in the laboratory and it has yet to be determined if it causes any negative reactions in humans.
But Time still described Dinglasan’s vaccine as “robust,†meaning it has proven effective against major types of malaria and all species of mosquitoes tested.
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