全球首款疟疾疫苗问世:希望和挑战并存

The world’s first malaria vaccine:Hope and challenge

RTS,S/AS01疟疾疫苗是一款针对恶性疟原虫红外期的亚单位疫苗,已历经30余年研发和临床试验,并获得WHO推荐,在全球疟疾高发地区5个月以上儿童中应用。尽管这款疫苗存在保护率不高(仅有30%左右)、需要接种4剂、免疫保护持续时间短等不足,但近年来每年均有数十万儿童死于疟疾,预计该款疫苗应用后每年能挽救数以万计的儿童生命、避免千万疟疾病例发生。因此,该疫苗的问世是人类抗击疟疾史上的一个重要里程碑事件,给人类遏制疟疾乃至最终消除疟疾带来希望。当然,研制理想的疟疾疫苗仍存在诸多挑战,但RTS,S/AS01疫苗的研发成功能极大推动疟疾等寄生虫病疫苗的研发进程,更加完美的疟疾疫苗值得期待。

The RTS,S/AS01 is a subunit malaria vaccine against the pre-erythrocytic stage of Plasmodium falciparum.After over 30 years of research and development and clinical trials,this vaccine has been recommended by the WHO for use among children living in highly malaria endemic areas.Although the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine suffers from problems of a low protective efficacy(about 30%),need of four doses and short duration of protective immunity,this malaria vaccine is expected to save tens of thousands of children’s lives,and avoid tens of millions of malaria cases annually,because there have been tens of thousands of childhood deaths due to malaria recently.The introduction of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine is therefore,widely accepted as a milestone in the history of battle against malaria,which brings a hope to contain malaria and even eventually eliminate malaria.Although there are still multiple challenges in the development of a satisfactory malaria vaccine,the success of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria greatly facilitates the progress towards the development of parasitic disease vaccines,and a more perfect malaria vaccine deserves expectations.