Safety and efficacy of PfSPZ Vaccine against malaria in healthy adults and women anticipating pregnancy in Mali: two randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1 and 2 trials.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia during pregnancy causes maternal, fetal, and infant mortality. Poor pregnancy outcomes are related to blood-stage parasite sequestration and the ensuing inflammatory response in the placenta, which decreases over successive pregnancies. A radiation-attenuated, non-replicating, whole-organism vaccine based on P falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ Vaccine) has shown efficacy at preventing infection in African adults.

Dietary protein from different sources escapes host digestion and is differentially modified by the microbiota.

Protein is an essential macronutrient and variations in its source and quantity have been shown to impact long-term health outcomes. Differential health impacts of dietary proteins from various sources are likely driven by differences in their digestibility by the host and subsequent availability to the intestinal microbiota. However, our current understanding regarding the fate of dietary proteins from different sources in the gut, specifically how component proteins within these sources interact with the host and the gut microbiota, is limited.

Innate immune activation restricts priming and protective efficacy of the radiation-attenuated PfSPZ malaria vaccine.

A systems analysis was conducted to determine the potential molecular mechanisms underlying differential immunogenicity and protective efficacy results of a clinical trial of the radiation-attenuated whole-sporozoite PfSPZ vaccine in African infants. Innate immune activation and myeloid signatures at prevaccination baseline correlated with protection from P. falciparum parasitemia in placebo controls.