New treatment for Malaria - Part 1

Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 515 million cases of malaria, killing between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, but is also a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development. Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem

 Now, Australian scientists have discovered a new compound that reduces malaria parasite burden by up to 92 per cent, opening a new avenue for anti-malarial drug development. The compound works by binding the digestive enzymes of the blood-stage parasite thus starving the malaria parasites and preventing them from multiplying within the host.

Dr. Don Gardiner, head of the Malaria Biology lab, and colleagues at The Queensland Institute of Medical Research in collaboration with Prof John Dalton, Director of the Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Technology Sydney have recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (USA) to further this work. This project brings together two Australian labs with distinct skills in multiple areas of research which has a huge potential to discover and develop new anti-malarial drugs.

During the erythrocytic stage of the malaria life cycle, the parasites employ digestive enzymes to break down haemoglobin and release amino acids that that are critical to their development whilst inside the red blood cell. The team has identified novel compounds that inhibit the function of these enzymes and prevent the growth of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in a lab setting.