Malaria vaccine clinical trials: what’s on the horizon

摘要

Significant progress towards a malaria vaccine, specifically for Plasmodium falciparum, has been made in the past few years with the completion of numerous clinical trials. Each trial has utilized a unique combination of antigens, delivery platforms, and adjuvants, and the data that has been obtained provides critical information that has poises the research community for the development of next generation malaria vaccines. Despite the progress towards a P. falciparum vaccine, P. vivax vaccine research requires more momentum and additional investigations to identify novel vaccine candidates. In this review, recently completed and ongoing malaria vaccine clinical trials as well as vaccine candidates that are in the development pipeline are reviewed. Perspectives for future research using post-genomic mining, nonhuman primate models, and systems biology are also discussed.