Last Updated: 01/05/2025
Prenatal malaria exposure and infant health and development: A prospective birth cohort study (PRiME)
Objectives
The objectives of this project are:
- To investigate the impact of timing and frequency of malaria infections during pregnancy on foetal immune priming and the development of antigen tolerance or immunity;
- To evaluate the effect of malaria exposure in pregnancy on trans-placental transfer of malaria-specific and other protective antibodies;
- To assess whether improved malaria control in pregnancy enhances infant immune responses to EPI-related vaccines;
- To determine the incidence of clinical malaria and other severe illnesses in early childhood following in utero malaria exposure; and
- To analyse immune and clinical outcomes in 1,123 infants born to HIV-negative women enrolled in an IPT trial and followed in a subsequent observational cohort study.
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), United Kingdom
Recent evidence suggests that infants born to pregnancies exposed to malaria have more clinical malaria and anaemia following pre-natal exposure to malaria antigens, leading in some children to a blood-stage antigen tolerant phenotype that persists into childhood, yet in others to effective foetal immune priming. This may have important implications for malaria control and vaccination of children in endemic areas. It is hypothesised that the timing and frequency of malaria infections during pregnancy affects the efficiency of foetal immune priming and the trans-placental transfer of antimalarial immunoglobulin and therewith the childhood susceptibility to malaria infections. Additionally, that adequate control of malaria during pregnancy may improve trans-placental transfer of protective antibodies to other infections, and potentially the vaccine immune responses to Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI) related vaccines. Using mostly data from two upcoming funded studies linked to the Wellcome Trust, combined with assessment of vaccine immune responses, this will be explored in 1,123 infants born to HIV-negative pregnant women enrolled in a three-arm trial to determine the efficacy of novel Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnancy (IPT). These same infants will subsequently enroll into an observational cohort study to determine incidence of clinical malaria and other severe illnesses during early childhood.
Aug 2017 — Apr 2021
$186,570
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