ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Parasite Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1620365
This article is part of the Research TopicDissecting malaria protective immunity: acquired by natural infection and/or vaccinationView all 7 articles
R21/Matrix-M Malaria Vaccine Drives Diverse Immune Responses in Pre-Exposed Adults: Insights from a Phase IIb Controlled Human Malaria Infection Trial
Provisionally accepted
Elizabeth Kibwana1*
Caroline Bundi1
Domtila KIMANI1Lydia Nyamako1
Kelvias Keter1Agnes Mutiso1Rodney Ogwang1
Duncan Bellamy2Katerina Rapi2Amelia Bajer2
Samuel Provstgaard-Morys2
Lisa Stockdale2Olivia Munoz2
Mehreen Datoo2Alison Lawrie2
Fernando Ramos Lopez2Rachel Roberts2
Mainga Hamaluba1,3
Adrian Vivian Sinton Hill2
Philip Bejon1,3Katie J Ewer2
Melissa Chola Kapulu1,3*- 1KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
- 2The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- 3Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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The study analyses the immune responses induced by the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine in semiimmune Kenyan adults through a controlled human malaria infection Phase IIb trial. This research evaluates the humoral and cellular responses after vaccination and sporozoite challenge by investigating antibody isotypes/subclasses and functional properties (avidity and complement fixation) as well as antigen-specific memory B cells and circulating T follicular helper (cTfh) cell dynamics. Results demonstrate that R21/Matrix-M elicits robust, durable antibody responses against multiple vaccine antigens (R21, NANP, C-terminus) with complementfixing activity. Additionally, an expansion of IgG+ memory B cells and a dominant Th2/Th17-skewed cTfh cells suggesting coordinated humoral and T cell help responses, which may contribute to the durability and quality of vaccine-induced immunity. These results provide significant information that aligns with the journal's mission to analyse immunity against malaria.
Keywords: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing -review & editing. Alison Lawrie: Project administration, Formal analysis, Writing -original draft. Fernando Ramos Lopez: Project administration, Writing -review & editing. Katerina Rapi: Writing -review & editing. Katie J Ewer: Conceptualization, supervision, Writing -review & editing. Kelvias Keter: Writing -review & editing. Lisa Stockdale: Writing -review & editing. Lydia Nyamako: Writingreview & editing. Mehreen Datoo: Writing -review & editing. Mainga Hamaluba: Funding acquisition
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kibwana, Bundi, KIMANI, Nyamako, Keter, Mutiso, Ogwang, Bellamy, Rapi, Bajer, Provstgaard-Morys, Stockdale, Munoz, Datoo, Lawrie, Ramos Lopez, Roberts, Hamaluba, Hill, Bejon, Ewer and Kapulu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Elizabeth Kibwana, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
Melissa Chola Kapulu, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.