Sanaria Announces Products for Malaria Research

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Biotechnology company Sanaria has announced the launch of a suite of products intended to advance research towards new malaria vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics, and enhanced understanding of malaria pathology and immunobiology.

Sanaria’s mission is to develop and commercialize wholeparasite malaria vaccines that confer high-level, long-lasting protection against malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax.

In the process of developing these vaccines, Sanaria has developed the capacity to manufacture and assay malaria parasites and mosquitoes in a highly regulated, cGMP compliant, industrial setting.

The company has announced that these parasites, mosquitoes, and assay services are now available to the general research community:

  • Sanaria Plasmodium falciparum Sporozoite Reagents: Aseptic, purified, vialed, cryopreserved, attenuated and non-attenuated Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) sporozoites.
  • Sanaria PfSPZ Challenge Mosquitoes: Live, aseptic and non-aseptic P. falciparum infected mosquitoes. These well-characterized mosquitoes are for experimentally challenging volunteers in studies assessing malaria vaccines and drugs and for laboratory-based research.
  • Sanaria Plasmodium Reagents: Purified, vialed, cryopreserved, attenuated and nonattenuated Plasmodium species sporozoites, as well as other life cycle stages for laboratory-based research studies.
  • Sanaria Plasmodium Reagent Slides: Slides for immunofluorescence assays to
    detect antibodies against purified sporozoite, and asexual erythrocytic, sexual
    erythrocytic and/or mosquito stages of Plasmodium species.
  • Sanaria Anopheles Reagents: Aseptic and non-aseptic Anopheles stephensi
    mosquitoes and derived material for laboratory-based research studies.
  • Sanaria Plasmodium Assay Services: Assessment of the effects of antibodies and
    drugs on the capacity of P. falciparum and P. vivax sporozoites to invade and develop in
    hepatocytes (inhibition of sporozoite invasion and inhibition of liver stage development
    assay), and of P. falciparum gametocytes to develop to oocysts and sporozoites in
    mosquitoes (transmission blocking assay). Assessment of antibodies to all life cycle
    stages of Plasmodium species by immunofluoresence assays and to selected antigens
    by ELISA.
  • Monoclonal Antibodies: Sporozoite, liver, and blood stage monoclonal antibodies.
  • Sanaria Custom Services: Sanaria will manufacture Plasmodium species reagents to
    meet client specifications.

Source: Sanaria

Sanaria Wins $3M Grant for Development of Malaria Vaccine

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Sanaria has won a three-year, $3 million phase 2 Small Business Research Innovation grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop its malaria vaccine.

The money will support research by scientists at the Rockville company and its partner, Columbia University, according to Sanaria information. The new grant continues earlier NIH-supported efforts at Sanaria and Columbia to develop genetically modified strains of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that do not cause disease, but stimulate protective immunity when administered as a live, whole parasite malaria vaccine.

“There is considerable excitement about whole parasite malaria vaccines, and research towards developing genetically modified strains for such vaccines is at the cutting edge of this field,” said Christian Loucq, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative with PATH-Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, in a statement.

The parasites have been weakened by exposure to radiation and confer high-level protection against malaria when introduced by the bite of infected mosquitoes, according to Sanaria. These parasites invade host tissues, but cannot complete differentiation and do not replicate or cause disease.

“Sanaria is uniquely positioned at this time to expand the pipeline of candidate sporozoite vaccines to include vaccines based on precisely gene-altered parasites that are highly potent in inducing protective immunity against malaria and are unable to cause disease,” said Stephen L. Hoffman, Sanaria’s founder and chief scientist, in the statement.