Binghamton University researchers investigate evolving malaria resistanceAugust 30, 2007Funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York, hope to understand how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum evolved resistance to the once-effective medication chloroquine. "Malaria is responsible for 1-3 million deaths a year, most of whom are children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa," said J. Koji Lum, associate professor of anthropology and biological sciences, principal investigator for the grant. "This is equivalent to the death toll from the attacks of 9/11 every eight to 24 hours." Lum and Ralph Garruto, professor of biomedical anthropology and a co-investigator on the grant, together have about 11,000 archived human blood samples from malarious regions of the Pacific collected from the 1950s to the present. The samples will be analyzed and researchers will document the accumulation of genetic changes that resulted in chloroquine's treatment failure in the Pacific. Malaria is relatively easy to eliminate in places that have a good health-care infrastructure. In the developing world, particularly in the tropics, the disease is treated primarily through chemotherapy, Lum said. The problem is that parasites develop resistance to the drugs over time. This study will help scientists understand how malaria parasites evolved resistance to chloroquine. They also hope to learn lessons that may be relevant to current treatments and their interactions with the disease. Ultimately, a better understanding of past episodes of drug resistance evolution will help doctors get the maximum possible impact from newer drugs. Other studies have had to rely on theoretical modeling of resistant parasites to infer how they evolved. Lum and Garruto expect to be able to directly observe the accumulation of the nine mutations in the transporter gene that confer resistance to chloroquine. They'll study parasites collected during the past 50 years and stored in the freezers of the NIH-BU Biomedical Anthropology archive. "This funding will allow us to do a little bit of time traveling," Lum said. Lum considers malaria the most important infectious disease in human history. It continues to exact a devastating toll, in part because the resulting loss of education, work and young lives creates a cycle that makes it nearly impossible for nations to rise from poverty. To eliminate malaria, countries must treat their entire populations, even asymptomatic adults. But there's rarely enough money and medicine for developing nations to do that, Lum explained. Doctors focus their energies on the young, people who are clearly ill. Adults who have developed some level of immunity to malaria end up as reservoirs for parasites, continuing to spread the illness without ever feeling sick. Binghamton University |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Malaria Parasite Current Events and Malaria Parasite News Articles Small nanoparticles bring big improvement to medical imaging If you're watching the complex processes in a living cell, it is easy to miss something important-especially if you are watching changes that take a long time to unfold and require high-spatial-resolution imaging. PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative shares strategy for developing 'next-generation' malaria vaccines Marking its tenth anniversary year, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) today unveiled a new strategy that sets the stage for an aggressive push targeting the long-term goal of eliminating and eradicating malaria. Malaria is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, killing nearly 900,000 people a year, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. Media availability: The role of biomedical research in malaria eradication Although malaria has been controlled in many local and regional populations, the permanent elimination of malaria parasites throughout the world remains an elusive goal, and the disease continues to claim nearly one million lives each year. UM School of Medicine researchers find extreme genetic variability in malaria parasite Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world. New research confirms potential deadly nature of emerging new monkey malaria species in humans Researchers in Malaysia have identified key laboratory and clinical features of an emerging new form of malaria infection. Scientists report original source of malaria Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa. Unique immunization method provides insights about protective anti-malaria immune response In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in Singapore, The Netherlands and France report that they have developed a novel immunization method that will induce fast and effective protection in humans against the life-threatening malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which infects 350 to 500 million people world-wide and kills over one million people each year. First genetically-engineered malaria vaccine to enter human trials Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have created a weakened strain of the malaria parasite that will be used as a live vaccine against the disease. Vaccine Blocks Malaria Transmission in Lab Experiments Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have for the first time produced a malarial protein (Pfs48/45) in the proper conformation and quantity to generate a significant immune response in mice and non-human primates for use in a potential transmission-blocking vaccine. Breakthrough in combating the side effects of Quinine Discovered back in the 1600s quinine was the first effective treatment in the fight against malaria - and it continues to be a commonly used treatment against this devastating disease. More Malaria Parasite Current Events and Malaria Parasite News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||