Genetically-engineered mice have produced milk containing vital ingredients for a new malaria vaccine.

The MSP-1 antigen is difficult to manufacture in quantity but researchers hope the mice will help solve this problem.

The scientists have developed a strain of genetically modified mice that includes a gene for the malarial parasite.

The mice secrete a chemical via their milk glands that can be used as a basis for a vaccine and Gensyme Transgenic has applied for a patent.

The research was carried out by Gensyme, working with the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 300 to 500 million people are infected worldwide, and one to two million die annually of the disease, 25% of them young children.

Mosquitoes that transmit the disease have become resistant to insecticides, and the most lethal form of the parasite, P. falciparum, has become resistant to the major drug used to treat the disease, chloroquine.
 

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