Firefly Gene Sheds Light On Malaria Parasite

By the light of a firefly, science is one step closer to a malaria vaccine.

Using a genetic technique known as transfection, a group of researchers at the School of Public Health were able to induce Plasmodium, the malaria parasite, to produce luciferase, the enzyme used by fireflies to emit light.

In essence, the team had created a luminous Plasmodium, one which should shed some light on the genetic processes which eventually lead to human infection by malaria and disease.

"One is now going to be able to functionally analyze parasite genes which may lead to genetically attenuated malaria parasites as vaccines," said Professor of Tropical Public Health Dyann F. Wirth, one of the project's collaborators.

Currently, many vaccines such as that for the flu rely on such attenuated, or weak, viruses. After an initial weak response to the harmless version of the virus, the body can mount a successful attack against subsequent infections.

Wirth suggested that the flu vaccine presents a model for using her team's successful transfection technique for such a treatment against malaria.

"The next step is to understand the parasite genes and to genetically engineer malaria parasites in order to prevent it from causing disease, as in the influenza vaccine," Wirth said.

Wirth and her colleagues reported their findings in the June 1 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It's a preliminary study that is interesting because it begins to use the manipulation of malaria as a genetic system," said Dr. Samuel I. Miller, assistant professor of medicine at the Medical School and a member of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.