Recently Identified Malaria Proteins May Be Targeted in New Treatments, Researchers Say

Australian and U.S. researchers have identified proteins involved in the process by which the malaria parasite infects red blood cells, a finding that might lead to new treatments for the disease, according to a study published in the Dec. 10 issue of Science, BBC News reports. Researchers from Northwestern University and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, examined the genetic code of one of the four types of malaria parasites and discovered a particular protein called PfEMP1, which allows the parasite to attach to red blood cells. According to Dr. Colin Sutherland, a malaria expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the identification of PfEMP1 might lead to malaria treatments targeting the protein because it is specific to the parasite. Therefore, any drugs developed to target the protein are "unlikely to adversely affect the human host," according to Sutherland, BBC News reports. According to Dr. Alan Cowman, head of the WEHI team, the identification of the PfEMP1 protein is a "major step forward in establishing which are the important" proteins in the malaria parasite as well as developing treatments to target them (BBC News, 12/12).