Empowering malaria vaccination by drug administration

Although significant progress has been made in clinical development, a protective malaria vaccine remains elusive. Here we review some of the immune subversive mechanisms used by the Plasmodium malaria parasite and propose a potentially effective strategy to achieve complete protection that may serve as a blue print for clinical usage. The premise is to modulate the immune response with drugs that neutralize suppressive functions and potentiate protective responses. Chloroquine may be a first attractive candidate facilitating protective cellular immune responses by improving cross-presentation and reducing suppressive regulatory T cell responses.