Pushing the boundaries of vaccine research

L-R: Dr Kirsty Wilson, Honours student Julie Tran and Professor Magdalena Plebanski

by Anne Crawford

In 2010 Professor Magdalena Plebanski observed something that didn’t make sense to her as an immunologist; a nanoparticle made of polystyrene exposed to the lungs of mice was rendering the animal resistant to developing asthma.

But why would it? she asked.

The inert polystyrene particle did not cause inflammation, was non-toxic, safe and protected the mouse against the disease in a similar way to a vaccine. Conventional immunology with its antigens, T cells and antigen-specific responses, didn’t explain it.

Malaria vaccines need forethought in development

The malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, amidst the
blood cells. Image: Aku Analis

by Anne Crawford

Monash University infectious diseases researchers have called for a new approach to malaria vaccine development, criticising those developing malaria vaccines that fail to act on the parasite’s polymorphism – or ability to change form.

Malaria kills almost 500,000 people a year globally and can have a crippling economic effect on the countries in which it is endemic. Some 3.2 billion people live in areas where they are at risk of malaria. No commercially available vaccine exists to prevent the disease.

Professor Magdalena Plebanski and Dr Katie Flanagan, from the Department of Immunology and Pathology’s Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Unit, say in a review published in the high-impact journal Trends in Parasitology that current malaria vaccines that have progressed to human trials largely fail to provide broad-spectrum protection against different polymorphic parasite variants.

'Universal key' approach to malaria points to new generation of vaccines

PhD student Kirsty Wilson is a co-author on both
papers on liver-stage infection by malaria parasites,
seen here presenting at a 2015 CCS symposium.

by Anne Crawford

Liver-stage infection by malaria parasites offers a key target for vaccines that aim to eradicate the disease. But the shape-shifting parasite has for decades defied concerted attempts by scientists to create a vaccine that will kill it in all its forms.

Monash researchers decided to review the field, hoping that insight and a fresh approach might point to a new solution. An unexpected finding they made in the research that followed could well be a pivotal first step in rationally designing a new generation of vaccines.