A study recently published in the journal Science may hold the key for both the prevention and treatment of Babesiosis. Scientists seeking a vaccine against malaria (which is a similar parasite to Babesia) have developed a promising new approach intended to imprison the disease-causing parasites inside the red blood cells they infect. The researchers said on Thursday an experimental vaccine based on this idea protected mice in five trials, and Phase I clinical trials testing the vaccine in humans could begin within a year and a half. Doctors from the U.S. National Institutes of Health pinpointed a protein, dubbed PfSEA-1, that the parasites need in order to escape from inside red blood cells they infect as they cause malaria. The researchers then found that antibodies sent by the body's immune system to take action against this protein managed to trap the parasites inside the red blood cells, blocking the progression of the disease. This could theoretically be applied to Babesiosis, which is one of the tick-borne illnesses frequently responsible for chronic persistent symptoms in my patients.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/05/23/new-vaccine-approach-imprisons-malaria-parasite-in-blood-cells/
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/05/23/new-vaccine-approach-imprisons-malaria-parasite-in-blood-cells/
