Safety and Immunogenicity of DNA/Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Malaria Vaccination in African Adults

The present study is an investigation of the safety and immunogenicity of DNA and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) candidate vaccines, each encoding the malaria DNA sequence multiple epitope-thrombospondin related adhesion protein (ME-TRAP), against Plasmodium falciparum. DNA ME-TRAP and MVA ME-TRAP are safe and immunogenic for effector and memory T cell induction. MVA ME-TRAP, with or without prior DNA ME-TRAP immunization, was more immunogenic and more cross-reactive in malaria-exposed individuals than in malaria-naive individuals, a finding suggesting that recombinant MVA vaccines are particularly promising for the development of a malaria vaccine for exposed populations. Both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells were induced by these vaccines.