Last Updated: 07/05/2026

Malaria vaccine development based on multifunctional hybrid vaccine platform

Objectives

This project aims to develop multifunctional malaria vaccines using baculovirus and adenovirus vectors that express Plasmodium circumsporozoite protein.

Principal Institution

Kanazawa University, Japan

Principal Investigators / Focal Persons

Shigeto Yoshida

Partner Institutions

University of Toyama, Japan
Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan
Jichi Medical University, Japan

Partner Investigators

Mitsuhiro Iyori
Shinya Fukumoto
Ryohei Ogawa
Takahiko Tamura
Hiroyuki Matsuoka

Rationale and Abstract

This research project has generated baculovirus- and adenovirus-based malaria vaccines expressing Plasmodium circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP) or PfCSP-Pfs25 fusino protein. Immunization of mice with these viral-vectored vaccines induced high anti-PfCSP and Pfs25 antibody titers and cellular immune responses. These results clearly demonstrated that the vaccines possesses multifunctional effects on induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses. This study successfully achieved sterile protective efficacy of the vaccines against sporozoite challenge. Moreover, heterologous prime-boost immunization regime using baculovirus- and adenovirus-PfCSP-Pfs25 elicited 99% transmission blocking activity. The present study shows great potential of these vaccines as next-generation malaria vaccines.

External reference

Project Details

Themes

Immunology
Vaccines

Date

Apr 2015 — Mar 2018

Total Project Funding

$155,419

Funding Details

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan

Grant ID: 5H04723

JPY 17.55M