An international team of scientists, including a researcher from India, has discovered new ways in which the malaria parasite survives in the blood stream of its victims, a discovery that could pave the way to new treatments for the disease.
The researchers at the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Toxicology Unit based at the University of Leicester and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine identified a key protein, called a protein kinase, that if targeted stops the disease. The study was published on Tuesday in Nature Communications.
Malaria is caused by a parasite that lives inside an infected mosquito and is transferred into the human through a bite. Once inside the body, parasites use a complex process to enter red blood cells and survive within them. By identifying one of the key proteins needed for the parasite to survive in the red blood cells, the team have prevented the protein from working, thus killing the parasite. The discovery could be the first step in developing a new drug to treat malaria.
Dr Mahmood Alam, first author of the study at the MRC Toxicology Unit based at the University of Leicester, said: “There has been a great deal of excitement among malaria scientists about the outcome of our research since it not only tells us about the biochemical pathways that are essential for the parasite to survive in our bodies but it also allows us to design drugs that can spot these essential pathways and thereby kill the parasite.”
Dr Alam, who hails from Lohardaga in India, graduated in Biotechnology in Ranchi and moved to Pondicherry for his Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from Pondicherry University.
According to the World Health Organization malaria currently infects more than 200 million people world wide and accounts for more than 500,000 deaths per year. Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute of malaria and the disease accounts for approximately 20% of all childhood deaths.
