Plasmodium falciparum News and Research

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Researcher receives 2013 Victoria Prize for contributions in quest to eradicate malaria

Malaria researcher Professor Alan Cowman from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has been awarded the 2013 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the quest to eradicate malaria.

8 Oct 2013

Study explains indirect burden of malaria on childhood deaths

Recurrent episodes of malaria cause chronic inflammation in blood vessels that might predispose to future infections and may increase susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, a Wellcome Trust study in Malawian children finds.

20 Sep 2013

Scientists develop novel, rapid way to test artemisinin-resistant malaria

For the first time, scientists have developed a novel and rapid way to test whether the most common and lethal form of malaria is resistant to potent artemisinin drugs.

12 Sep 2013

Phase I clinical trial: Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine provides complete protection against malaria

Results of a phase I clinical trial of the Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine to combat malaria, published today in the online issue of Science magazine, show that the vaccine provided complete protection against malaria in subjects who were exposed to Plasmodium falciparum parasites. Plasmodium falciparum is the malaria parasite that causes more than 600,000 deaths annually.

9 Aug 2013

Investigational malaria vaccine offers protection against malaria infection in healthy adults

An investigational malaria vaccine has been found to be safe, to generate an immune system response, and to offer protection against malaria infection in healthy adults, according to the results of an early-stage clinical trial published Aug. 8 in the journal Science.

9 Aug 2013

Engineered liver tissue developed at MIT could help scientists test new drugs, vaccines for malaria

Although malaria has been eradicated in many countries, including the United States, it still infects more than 200 million people worldwide, killing nearly a million every year. In regions where malaria is endemic, people rely on preventive measures such as mosquito netting and insecticides. Existing drugs can help, but the malaria parasite is becoming resistant to many of them.

18 Jul 2013

Researchers discover new class of antimalarial compounds

Despite renewed global efforts for eradication, malaria continues to exert devastating effects on human health. An estimated 220 million people are infected each year by malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. This enormous infection burden leads to some 660,000 lives lost to malaria each year, the majority of these young children in sub-Saharan Africa. While a vaccine to prevent malaria remains elusive, we depend on antimalarial compounds both to treat infections and prevent disease.

10 Jul 2013

Study identifies the vector that transmitted malaria from apes to humans

In 2010, a study revealed that the main agent of malaria in humans, called Plasmodium falciparum, arose from the gorilla. Today, the vector which transmitted the parasite from apes to humans has just been identified.

3 May 2013

Study identifies malaria parasite protein as potential new target for drug treatment to prevent malaria

Scientists have discovered how a protein within the malaria parasite is essential to its survival as it develops inside a mosquito. They believe their findings identify this protein as a potential new target for drug treatments to prevent malaria being passed to humans.

24 Apr 2013

Edible malarial vaccine may work against other viral and bacterial infections

Can scientists rid malaria from the Third World by simply feeding algae genetically engineered with a vaccine? That's the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer after they demonstrated last May that algae can be engineered to produce a vaccine that blocks malaria transmission.

22 Apr 2013

Malaria control strategies must adapt to rapidly changing patterns of infection

Malaria control strategies must keep up with the rapidly changing patterns of malaria infection in low transmission settings, according to the authors of a new Review, published in The Lancet. Whereas women and young children suffer from the greatest burden of malaria in high transmission areas, an increasing proportion of malaria cases in low transmission settings are occurring in adult men, sometimes concentrated in small geographic areas and sharing certain occupations or behaviours.

15 Apr 2013

Newly discovered molecule could form the basis of anti-malaria drugs

An international study, involving researchers from Griffith University's Eskitis Institute, has discovered a molecule which could form the basis of powerful new anti-malaria drugs.

25 Mar 2013

New class of anti-malarial compounds discovered

A group of researchers from 16 institutions around the world has identified a new class of anti-malarial compounds that target multiple stages of the malaria parasite's life cycle.

21 Mar 2013

Fewer malaria cases, more artesunate resistance on Thai border

Results from an observational study show that the number of reported malaria cases in children and pregnant women on the Thai–Myanmar border has decreased significantly over the past decade.

6 Mar 2013

Immature malaria parasites more resistant to treatment with artemisinin

New research has revealed that immature malaria parasites are more resistant to treatment with key antimalarial drugs than older parasites, a finding that could lead to more effective treatments for a disease that kills one person every minute and is developing resistance to drugs at an alarming rate.

20 Feb 2013

Study shows how placental circulation can influence malarial parasite behavior and infection

Malaria in pregnancy causes a range of adverse effects, including abortions, stillbirths, premature delivery and low infant birth weight. Many of these effects are thought to derive from a placental inflammatory response resulting from interaction of infected red blood cells with the placental tissue.

3 Feb 2013

Researchers identify signaling pathway used by malarial parasites to destroy host cells

One of the most insidious ways that parasitic diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis wreak their havoc is by hijacking their host's natural cellular processes, turning self against self.

18 Jan 2013

Inovio, MVI collaborate to advance malaria vaccine development and new delivery technologies

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced a follow-on collaboration to advance malaria vaccine development and new vaccination delivery technologies.

7 Jan 2013

Common cholesterol-lowering drug may help protect against cerebral malaria

Researchers have discovered that adding lovastatin, a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug, to traditional antimalarial treatment decreases neuroinflammation and protects against cognitive impairment in a mouse model of cerebral malaria.

29 Dec 2012

Protein in human blood platelets points to a new weapon against malaria

One of the world's most devastating diseases is malaria, responsible for at least a million deaths annually, despite global efforts to combat it. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, working with collaborators from Drexel University, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins University, have identified a protein in human blood platelets that points to a powerful new weapon against the disease. Their work was published in this months' issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

28 Dec 2012