Professor Nasiru Shu’aibu of the Biochemical Parasitology Department in Ahmadu Bello University, has invented a new vaccine to combat the malaria parasite.
Professor Nasiru Shu’aibu
Explaining how the vaccine works, he said a minute quantity of DNA was extracted from a mosquito.
“It is then injected into the body of the animal or human and it eventually enters the cells of the animal in the same way a virus enters and infects cells.
“The injected DNA now uses the cells in the body to produce chemicals that will prevent malaria from infecting the body,” Mr. Shu’aibu said.
He said the approach was also different from the other malaria vaccine (RTS,S/AS01) that was likely to be licensed but the goals were the same, to control and eventually eliminate malaria.
Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 170 million, constitutes the highest malaria burden in Africa and in the world.
Shu’aibu, who is currently working with the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Japan, said the result of the research on the new vaccine would soon be out for Nigerians to use.
“In a simple term that a layman can understand, the content of this Malaria vaccine research is difficult, but let me try if I could simplify it, it is called DNA Vaccine.
“It is a new technology for discovery and delivery of vaccine against any infectious disease that was developed in the early to mid 1990s.
“The DNA of the Malaria parasite was extracted and the portion of the DNA that is tested to be a good vaccine candidate is subjected to molecular biology methods which are used to produce a lot of the DNA,” Shu’aibu said.
According to him, the amount of DNA from the Malaria parasite was very minute in quantity and to expand the quantity, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used.
