Research breakthrough could lead to new treatment for malaria
Multinational team of researchers focuses on how parasites
use enzymes to survive and spread disease.
Malaria causes more than two million deaths each year, but an
expert multinational team battling the global spread of
drug-resistant parasites has made a breakthrough in the search for
better treatment. Better understanding of the make-up of these
parasites and the way they reproduce has enabled an international
team, led by John Dalton, a biochemist in 看片视频鈥檚 Institute of
Parasitology, to identify a plan of attack for the development of
urgently needed new treatments.
Malaria parasites live inside our red blood cells and feed on
proteins, breaking them down so that they can use the proceeds
(amino acids) as building blocks for their own proteins. When they
have reached a sufficient size they divide and burst out of the red
cell and enter another, repeating the process until severe disease
or death occurs. Dalton and his colleagues found that certain
鈥渄igestive enzymes鈥 in the parasites enable them to undertake this
process. Importantly, the researchers have also now determined the
three-dimensional structures of two enzymes and demonstrated how
drugs can be designed to disable the enzymes.
鈥淏y blocking the action of these critical parasite enzymes, we have
shown that the parasites can no longer survive within the human red
blood cell,鈥 Dalton explains. The discovery will be published in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is the
result of collaboration including Australia鈥檚 Queensland Institute
of Medical Research, Monash University and the University of
Western Sydney, Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland and the
University of Virginia in the U.S. The team is putting their
findings into action immediately and is already pursuing
anti-malarial drug development.