Blocking Malaria
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine are investigating a possible treatment for Malaria which acts by trapping the parasite in its protective sac. Trap the parasite long enough, and it simply dies before it can wreak havoc on the body.
Dr. Daniel Goldberg and his colleagues managed to successfully block malaria parasites in blood samples.
When malaria enters the human body, the parasites infect red blood cells and then surround themselves with part of the blood cell membrane to create a protective sac for the parasite to reproduce. The parasite replicates itself until it bursts the protective sac and then scatter to infect the bloodstream.
In blood cultures, Goldberg and other researchers treated the malaria with a drug that prevented the parasite from bursting from the protective sac. Eventually the parasite would deteriorate and no longer poses an infectious threat.
Much more research will be required to identify the specific mechanism that prevents the parasites from escaping the sac, and any possible treatment for human beings based on the finding is years away.
Source:
Scientists ‘block malaria’. The BBC, December 31, 2000.
The Blocking Malaria by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Tags: Malaria