A growing number of countries are stamping out malaria, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, as it launched an initiative to help eradicate the deadly disease in 25 more countries by 2025. Ahead of World Malaria Day on Sunday, the UN health agency insisted that elimination of the disease that kills some 400,000 people each […]
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Diabetes and obesity risk factors for severe malaria
Infectious diseases doctor Katja Wyss’s thesis is the product of many years’ research on malaria in Sweden. With clinical data from almost 3,000 diagnosed cases over a twenty-year time span, Katja Wyss at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medicine in Solna presents risk factors for malaria and new links between malaria and lymphoma—results that are of […]
These genes help explain how malaria parasites survive treatment with common drug
The essential malaria drug artemisinin acts like a “ticking time bomb” in parasite cells—but in the half a century since the drug was introduced, malaria-causing parasites have slowly grown less and less susceptible to the treatment, threatening attempts at global control over the disease. In a paper published September 23 in Nature Communications, Whitehead Institute […]
Monkey malaria breakthrough offers possible cure for relapsing malaria
A breakthrough in monkey malaria research by two University of Otago scientists could help scientists diagnose and treat a relapsing form of human malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals with more than 200 million cases annually, particularly in Asia, the Pacific and South America. Symptoms include fever, tiredness, […]
Identification of protective antibodies may be key to effective malaria vaccine
Researchers from the University of Oxford, along with partners from five institutions around the world, have identified the human antibodies that prevent the malaria parasite from entering blood cells, which may be key to creating a highly effective malaria vaccination. The results of the study were published today in the journal Cell. “Following an infectious […]
Sugar entering the brain during septic shock causes memory loss: Research gives clear target for drug development and further study into memory loss
The loss of memory and cognitive function known to afflict survivors of septic shock is the result of a sugar that is released into the blood stream and enters the brain during the life-threatening condition. This finding, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains the premature mental aging that follows […]
Half a million tests and many mosquitoes later, new buzz about a malaria prevention drug
Most malaria drugs are designed to reduce symptoms after infection. They work by blocking replication of the disease-causing parasites in human blood, but they don’t prevent infection or transmission via mosquitoes. What’s worse, the malaria parasite is developing resistance to existing drugs. “In many ways, the search for new malaria drugs has been a search […]
A new aspect in Plasmodium falciparum life cycle revealed: ‘Express’ sexual conversion: Conversion from the asexual to the sexual phase of the malaria parasite is necessary for its transmission to the mosquito
A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) — an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation- reveals a new mechanism by which the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum converts from its asexual to its sexual form, which can be transmitted to the mosquito. The results, published in Nature Microbiology, provide important information on […]
Drugs that stop mosquitoes catching malaria could help eradicate the disease
Researchers have identified compounds that could prevent malaria parasites from being able to infect mosquitoes, halting the spread of disease. Preventing transmission of malaria is a key part of efforts to eliminate the disease. A person can be cured of the disease using drugs that wipe out the replicating form of the parasite, but still […]