Australian researchers report important malaria findings 28 June 2010 Australian researchers working at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne have discovered that molecules similar to heparin, a blood-thinning drug, can stop malaria infecting red blood cells. This finding, which has just been reported in the prestigious international journal, Blood, opens the way for possible new treatments for malaria. Currently, all licensed anti-malarial drugs block the development of the common malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, within the red blood cell. However, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute team, working with colleagues at the Burnet Institute, also in Melbourne, and the Imperial College in London, have identified a way to stop parasites actually getting into red blood cells. They have shown that heparin-like carbohydrates can stop the malaria parasite from infecting cells and that although heparin is not suitable as an anti-malarial as it prevents blood clotting, related compounds have been identified that could form the basis of new anti-malarial drugs. In another important malaria discovery, scientists at the Melbourne Burnet Institute, working in collaboration with Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, have identified one of the key steps by which malaria parasites signal and regulate entry into red blood cells. An enzyme called Protein Kinase A appears to activate a chain reaction with a protein which helps the malaria parasite attach to the surface of a red blood cell, resulting in the parasite gaining entry into the cell. This research has just been published in the journal, PloS Pathogens. Professor Brendan Crabb, CEO of the Burnet Institute, said that the invasion of red blood cells is a complex process involving multiple steps, and that until now this process of cell infection had not been well understood. He added said that the discovery was a major breakthrough and another step forward in identifying new drug targets to prevent and treat malaria. Every year, 500 million people around the world are estimated to be exposed to malaria, and more than one million of these people die, the majority children under five. More information |