Injectable antibody drug protects children from malaria in Mali trial

A single dose of an experimental antibody drug protects children from malaria for up to 6 months, according to a clinical study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine . The therapy, an injectable monoclonal antibody called L9LS that has already shown success in adults , reduced infections and clinical disease in 6- to 10-year-olds in Mali. Although the drug is still undergoing clinical testing, the results suggest monoclonal antibodies could be an important addition to the arsenal against this deadly disease, researchers say. Malaria caused an estimated 608,000 deaths in 2022, about three-quarters of them among African children under 5 years old. There are various strategies to try to stall the mosquito-borne disease, including insecticide-treated bed nets, vaccination—which got its first large-scale rollout in Cameroon this year and is now part of childhood immunization programs in eight African countries—and preventative treatment with antimalarial drugs. However, no approach is 100% effective and all carry practical limitations. Some antimalarials, for example, have to be taken for several days each month to be protective. Monoclonal antibodies, which can stop pathogens invading cells by binding to proteins on their surface, offer another approach, says Peter Crompton, a malaria researcher with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 2022, he and his colleagues reported that one ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news