The researchers found that a molecule, similar to a blood thinning drug, can block the malaria parasite from infecting red blood cells.
Credit: Drew Berry, WEHI
SYDNEY: Molecules that block the malaria parasite from infecting red blood cells - causing the illness that kills nearly one million people every year - have been found by researchers in Australia and Britain.
The team of researchers, which includes immunologists Michelle Boyle, Jack Richards and James Beeson of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, showed that heparin-like molecules interfere with the malaria parasite's ability to attach to, and therefore invade, red blood cells.
The molecule is related to the blood-thinning drug heparin and could provide a new approach for treating the mosquito-borne disease. Although they are not new to science, their malaria-blocking properties were not previously recognised.
Blocking the parasite
"Very few compounds have been identified that can do that," said Beeson. "[Now we can] start generating a range of range of related compounds in this family, screening those, and identifying those that have the greatest potential against the malaria with the least side effects."
Once a malaria parasite enters the red blood cells, it replicates and then bursts the cell open, spreading its progeny into the blood stream. All of the anti-malarial drugs currently approved for use in humans block the parasite's development once it is already inside red blood cells.
Beeson and colleagues investigated carbohydrate molecules that are similar to heparin, suspecting that they had a different approach to attacking malaria. Heparin occurs naturally in the blood, but not at high enough levels to have anti-malarial properties.
The researchers found that the heparin-like molecules bind to a protein called MSP1, which is necessary for the parasite to attach to the cell.
New group of potential drugs
Apart from being one of the few molecules known to block the parasite's entry into the blood cell, Beeson said that fundamental understanding of how these carbohydrates work removes some of the hurdles in future drug development.
"We know that these kinds of compounds can be used in humans quite safely," he said.
"We have identified related compounds that are more potent against malaria than heparin but do not prevent blood clotting," said Beeson. "These could form the basis of new anti-malarial drugs."
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