Malaria Deaths Surge Amid Drug Resistance
Rawpixel.com
Malaria deaths are surging in many parts of the world today, as the drugs used to fight the disease are losing their effectiveness. In sub-Saharan Africa, hundreds of thousands of children are dying from this mosquito-borne illness each year.
However, a significant new discovery by Columbia scientists is raising hopes for the development of more effective drugs. In a recent issue of the journal Cell, the scientists provide the first detailed description of how malaria parasites attach themselves to red blood cells, drive spiral-shaped proteins into the cells’ outer membranes, and then tear open a hole to slip inside.
According to Chi-Min Ho, a microbiologist and immunologist who led the research team, scientists have known for decades that malaria parasites invade blood cells through a distinctive hatch they carve into the cell membranes. This invasion occurs in synchronized waves as trillions of parasites spread throughout the body, causing severe fevers every forty-eight hours. Yet, the speed of this invasion had thwarted prior observation of how an individual parasite penetrates a blood cell.
The Columbia team achieved this by freezing parasites at the moment of their assault and employing cryo-electron microscopy to produce high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the event. This technological advancement allowed the researchers to visualize the molecular mechanics of the invasion in unprecedented detail, enabling them to synthesize a protein that can disrupt a parasite’s grip on a blood cell.
While the researchers emphasize that the synthesized compound is not a drug candidate in itself, it could pave the way for the development of one. “That’s the part we’re most eager to build on,” remarks Daphne Kaxiras, a medical student in Ho’s lab who played a key role in developing the compound.
