A phase II clinical study to assess the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of blood-stage plasmodium vivax malaria vaccine candidate PvRII/Matrix-M in healthy thai adults living in thailand

This project is the third part of a 5-year research program entitled "Malaria Infection Studies in Thailand (MIST)" and known as MIST3. MIST3's primary objectives are to assess the safety of the PvRII/Matrix-M vaccine candidate in healthy adult Thai volunteers and to establish whether the PvRII/Matrix-M vaccine can demonstrate a reduced parasite multiplication rate in vaccinated volunteers compared to a controlled group (placebo vaccine) in a blood-stage controlled human malaria infection model. This study will recruit up to 36 eligible healthy volunteers aged 20-55 in Thailand at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. Eighteen volunteers will receive three doses of the PvRII/Matrix-M candidate vaccine, and 18 volunteers will receive three doses of the placebo vaccine. Safety and immunogenicity will be evaluated after each dose as per protocol. Approximately four weeks after receiving the third vaccination, 24 volunteers will undergo blood-stage CHMI with Plasmodium vivax. The volunteers will be monitored closely as in-patients in the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and treated according to the Research Proposal Submission Form. This study is funded by the UK Wellcome Trust. The grant reference number are Oxford/MORU: 212336/Z/18/Z and 212336/Z/18/A, and Mahidol University: 212336/A/18/Z and 212336/A/18/A