Research on Malaria Vaccines

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will provide updates on the most innovative and promising research into the development of a malaria vaccine. The classical approach to malaria vaccine development has been to prevent hepatocyte invasion, reduce the symptomatic form in the human bloodstream, and block transmission to mosquitos. This approach has primarily used irradiated sporozoites and other sporozoite antigens. However, vaccination with these versions has proven to be insufficient for developing sterilizing immunity. Therefore, multi-stage, multi-epitope, rationally designed new-generation vaccines are being considered.

This Special Issue will discuss innovative works related to malaria vaccine candidates at different levels of development, ranging from designing vaccine candidates and those undergoing pre-clinical testing to others at different clinical trial phases. The development of vaccine candidates for different Plasmodium species, such as P. falciparum and P. vivax, and genetic variants will be considered. Please contribute high-quality reviews, regular research papers, communications, and case reports. Specifically, the Special Issue’s research areas may include the following topics:

• Moving beyond frontiers and new challenges related to safe and potent malaria vaccines;
• Classical versions of malaria vaccines against pre-erythrocytic stages;
• Transmission-blocking vaccines;
• Vaccines against Plasmodium blood stages;
• Development of functional monoclonal antibodies against Plasmodium targets;
• Rationally designed new generation vaccines;
• Natural versus acquired immunity against malaria;
• Novel adjuvants for malaria vaccine formulation;
• Immunoinformatics for malaria vaccines.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Jose Manuel Lozano
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• malaria
• plasmodium spp
• pre-erythrocytic stages
• blood stages
• transmission-blocking vaccines
• monoclonal neutralizing antibodies
• immunity to plasmodium