Tackling the spread of Malaria
New insights help the development of therapeutic and vaccine strategies to treat the millions of malaria patients worldwide
Malaria is a major global killer, causing around 600,000 deaths a year in the developing world, mainly of children.听
Of the five species of the parasite that infect humans,听Plasmodium falciparum听is the most lethal. Although effective anti-malarial drugs are available, it is a matter of serious global concern that this particular parasite is developing resistance to the drug artemisinin, the treatment of last resort when all other malaria drugs have failed due to resistant strains.
The appearance and spread of resistant strains of听Plasmodium falciparum听pose an increasing risk, due to its complex life cycle in both its mosquito and human hosts.
Once a human host has been infected, the parasites multiply inside their听host cell, and when mature, they escape via a process called egress, and immediately invade many other red blood cells. They hijack their host cells and redirect cell activity for their own benefit.听Plasmodium falciparum infected听cells express parasite-encoded adhesive protrusions (known as 'knobs') on their surface, enabling them to escape capture by the spleen and cause the most dangerous form of malaria, leading to death by obstruction of capillaries in the brain.
What we鈥檙e researching:
Using electron tomography, video microscopy of live cells and soft X-ray tomography, we have uncovered new details of the changes to the red blood cell membranes and cytoskeleton during egress, leading to the discovery of a previously undescribed, early step in egress.
Using the methods we have developed, along with powerful new gene modification tools in听Plasmodium falciparum, we are exploring the molecular and cellular basis of membrane and cytoskeleton reorganisation听during egress.听
“Finding new ways to halt malaria鈥檚 progression is vital if we are to reduce the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occur each year due to it.”
What will the impact be?
Professor Saibil said, 鈥淢alaria is a major killer. Finding new ways to halt malaria鈥檚 progression is vital if we are to reduce the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occur each year due to it. These findings are an important step towards developing new treatments that tackle the disease in different ways to the existing drugs, which mostly focus on stopping the parasite from multiplying within the cell.鈥
"Our research will yield new insights into the molecular and cellular events听 leading to egress. A better understanding of this process will help the听development of therapeutic and vaccine strategies to treat the millions of malaria patients worldwide," Dr Saibil adds.
"If we can block egress, the clinical symptoms and progression of malaria would be arrested. Our experiments are developing new tools, reagents and methodology, (such as methods for electron and X-ray tomography of infected cells, transformed malaria strains), which we will share with the wider research community through publications, public database depositions, and laboratory websites.听The techniques used in this research also contribute to the training in state-of-the-art electron microscopy methods, a field in which there is ongoing international academic and industrial interest."
Project Fact-file
- Full project title:听Membrane and Host Cytoskeleton Reorganisation during Malaria Parasite Egress from Erythrocytes
- Project funding:听拢547,737 [MR/P010288/1]
- Funder:听
- Length of award:听1 May 2017 to 30 April 2020
- Supported by:听Department of Biological Sciences听(School of Science)
- People:听听Professor Helen Saibil, Department of Biological Sciences, 糖心logo入口, University of London;
,听The Francis Crick Institute;听,听King's College London