People With Blood Type O Less Likely To Experience Severe Effects of Malaria, Study Says
People with blood type O are two-thirds less likely to experience some of the most severe effects associated with malaria, such as life-threatening anemia or coma, according to a study published in the Oct. 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, BBC News reports (BBC News, 10/30). Researchers from Edinburgh University and colleagues from Kenya, Mali and the U.S. conducted the study among about 600 children with malaria in Mali (Daily Express, 10/30).
During the infection process, malaria parasites cover red blood cells' surface with proteins that stick to blood vessel walls, and the proteins make healthy red blood cells stick to the parasite -- covering the infected red blood cell in what is known as a rosette, BBC News reports. Often in fatal malaria, rosettes block blood vessels that supply oxygen to the brain. The researchers found that the process of rosetting is associated with severe malaria in all blood types except O because the surface structure of red blood cells in type O blood prevents them from fully adhering to malaria parasites. Reduced rosetting could explain why people with type O blood are less likely to have severe side effects associated with malaria, the researchers said.
The findings "tells us that if we can develop a drug or a vaccine to reduce rosetting and mimic the effect of being blood group O, we may be able to reduce the number of children dying from severe malaria in sub-Saharan Africa," Alex Rowe, one of the study authors from Edinburgh University's School of Biological Sciences, said. The research was funded by NIH and the Wellcome Trust (BBC News, 10/30).
The study is available online.
