Immunological strategies for malaria control;
traditional approaches, vaccine candidates, novel ideas
A multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural training workshop
Camerino, Italy, 26-31 July 2010
This training event was targeted to doctoral candidates (whatever their disciplinary background), who already work on malaria, or who plan to be involved – from various perspectives and with different approaches – in research and control of poverty-related diseases in their future.
The workshop was organized in the frame of the PhD Programme on Malaria and Human Development supported by WHO, Global Malaria Programme, the University of Camerino and the Italian Malaria Network.
The workshop provided the opportunity for participants to get updated on the major, recent achievements in malaria immunology and advances in the search for malaria vaccine. The update was based on the modern approaches involving the erythrocytic and pre-erythrocytic stages of malaria parasite and the recent approaches of transmission blocking vaccines. The forum postulated on the issues to be considered to develop an ideal effective malaria vaccine for instance what immune mechanisms should be targeted, what will be the target antigens of the asexual or the sexual stage malarial vaccines? The forum also provided an occasion for review of the use and the position of the traditional remedies to control malaria in endemic countries of Africa. There was an occasion to get acquainted with traditional approaches to stimulate immunity (such as plant remedies) and a provision for insights into the complexity of vaccination in African countries where malnutrition and co-infection with a multiplicity of agents are of common occurrence, and thus may hamper the development of fully functional immunity.
The workshop participants were updated on the outcomes on the ongoing clinical trials of the pre-erthrocytic stage vaccine called RTSS, which is currently the most promising malaria vaccine candidate. The forum also discussed the requirements needed to develop an ideal malaria vaccine including multistage, multiple epitopes, eliciting both cellular and humoral immune responses with long term sterile immunity and must be able to be included into the infants expanded programmes on immunization safely and with high efficacy.
Additionally, major dilemmas on bioethics in researches involving human subjects in developing countries were extensively discussed during a round table discussion at the close of the workshop. Issues discussed related to the complexities of informed consent at individual and group levels, community involvement and feedback, compensation to participants and conflict of interest. It was agreed that National Ethics Committees should devise effective mechanisms to monitor and enforce bioethical standards that emphasize legal protection for individuals' rights, safety and health.
Within a multidisciplinary approach, answers and view points from the perspective of biologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, socio-economists and health policy makers were discussed. For more detailed information, please look at the draft of workshop programme.
The workshop was based on - structured plenary lectures, working group sessions and round table discussions – relying upon the expertise of lecturers and facilitators from research and control institutions of different malaria endemic countries, and other institutions namely TDR, the Italian Malaria Network and others focusing on malaria research and control.
We warmly invite you to browse the web-site reports of the 2 preceding workshops, conducted in 2008 on drugs and remedies and in 2009 on vector control. For any further information do not hesitate to contact:
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. This web-site has been constructed and edited by workshop participants, under the guidance of PhD candidates from the Department of Computer Science and as a part of the skill training organized by the PhD Programme on Malaria and Human Development. |
