Post by Kev on Sept 23, 2004 10:46:42 GMT -5
MILLIONS of lives across the world could be saved from a potentially fatal disease after a major breakthrough by scientists in Liverpool
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has discovered why the parasite that causes malaria is resistant to a popular drug,
The discovery, described as "a big piece in the jigsaw puzzle", paves the way for the creation of new drugs to save the lives of some of the 2.7m people who die of malaria annually, many of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.
Once in the body, the malaria parasite multiplies and invades the red blood cells
A concentration of high levels of chloroquine can kill the parasites living in the cells.
But the research of Professor Steve Ward and Dr Pat Bray, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, working with Dr David Fidock at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has shown how a protein called PfCRT inside the parasite has enabled it to become resistant to important anti-malarial drugs.
Many people, particularly in Africa, have died because chloroquine, still the most affordable and widely used anti-malarial, has lost its efficiency.
The parasite is deposited in mosquito bites.
Professor Ward whose research is published in the American scientific journal Molecular Cell tomorrow said: "While other drugs are available, most are much more expensive than chloroquine, putting them out of the reach of health care workers in developing countries.
>>More
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has discovered why the parasite that causes malaria is resistant to a popular drug,
The discovery, described as "a big piece in the jigsaw puzzle", paves the way for the creation of new drugs to save the lives of some of the 2.7m people who die of malaria annually, many of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.
Once in the body, the malaria parasite multiplies and invades the red blood cells
A concentration of high levels of chloroquine can kill the parasites living in the cells.
But the research of Professor Steve Ward and Dr Pat Bray, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, working with Dr David Fidock at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has shown how a protein called PfCRT inside the parasite has enabled it to become resistant to important anti-malarial drugs.
Many people, particularly in Africa, have died because chloroquine, still the most affordable and widely used anti-malarial, has lost its efficiency.
The parasite is deposited in mosquito bites.
Professor Ward whose research is published in the American scientific journal Molecular Cell tomorrow said: "While other drugs are available, most are much more expensive than chloroquine, putting them out of the reach of health care workers in developing countries.
>>More
