An experimental malaria vaccine appears safe and promotes an immune response in African infants, one of the groups most vulnerable to severe malaria disease. There is currently only one malaria vaccine, ‘RTS,S’ that is approved by the World Health Organization and offers partial disease protection. However, in the results of the early-stage phase Ib trial, researchers find that targeting RH5 — a protein that the malaria pathogen Plasmodium falciparum uses to invade red blood cells — can generate a promising immune response that is most pronounced in an infant cohort.
