Mosquito stage, transmission blocking vaccines for malaria

Purpose of review This review highlights progress made in the development of vaccines aimed at the stages of malaria parasites found in mosquitoes that block the transmission of malaria within a community. Recent findings Substantial progress has been made on the production and characterization of the leading candidates P25 and P28 from Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. Immunogenicity data have been obtained for P25 in humans that showed significant transmission blocking activity and further advances in formulation should boost this activity, The completion of the malaria genome and ongoing proteomics identified further candidate antigens now entering development. Summary Recent advances increase confidence that a mosquito stage transmission blocking malaria vaccine will be feasible.