New Malaria Target - Researchers Discover Weakness In Malaria-Causing Parasite

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 18 Apr 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Scientists may have found a promising new drug target on the parasite that causes malaria -- P. falciparum. To survive, the parasite creates a tiny pore called an anion channel, through which it takes in nutrients from outside the host cell's membrane and excretes its waste.

In a recent paper published in PLoS Pathogens, the authors describe for the first time how this channel functions and how to possibly impair that function -- thereby sickening and killing the parasite. The researchers discovered an important regulatory subunit enzyme, called PfPKA-R, which is encoded in the parasite's genome, and appears to be key to the proper function of the anion channel. Medications to treat malaria exist but the parasite gradually develops resistance, making the ongoing search for new and better treatments imperative.

The study was an international collaboration -- led by Dr. Kirk Deitsch of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and Stéphane Egée of Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Roscoff, France.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian, which is ranked sixth on the U.S.News & World Report list of top hospitals, also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree oversees and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Weill Cornell Medical Center