Plasmodium falciparum News and Research

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ASTMH annual meeting to explore latest research on infectious diseases

The 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) -- the largest of its kind in the world -- will bring together in one place global experts who are battling a wide range of bacteria, viruses, parasites and other pathogens that each year kill or sicken hundreds of millions of people.

12 Sep 2011

Candidate malaria vaccine represents 'potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy,' researchers say

A team of researchers led by Stephen Hoffman of Sanaria Inc. has created a candidate malaria vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the malaria parasites, using live but weakened parasites that "represents a potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy," an NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases press release reports.

12 Sep 2011

UMSOM to receive FDA approval for whole parasite malaria vaccine clinical trials

For the first time, a malaria vaccine that uses the entire malaria parasite has proven safe and shown promise to produce a strong immune response in a clinical trial, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development.

12 Sep 2011

Positive results from Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine initial Phase 1 trial on malaria

Positive results from the initial Phase 1 clinical trial in 80 healthy volunteers and complementary pre-clinical studies of the Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine are published today in the online issue of Science.

9 Sep 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Researchers characterise protein complex linked to malaria and toxoplasmosis

Maryse Lebrun, Research Director at Inserm, and her fellow researchers at the Laboratoire Dynamique des interactions membranaires normales et pathologiques, have characterised a protein complex that allows the agents that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis to infect host cells.

25 Jul 2011

Discovery challenges current thinking on origin of malaria parasite

The agent of malaria has been found in the greater spot-nosed monkey, also known as putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans), a small African primate derived from a line different to that of humans, gorillas and chimpanzees.

22 Jul 2011

Heartworm medication Ivermectin prevents malaria transmission in Africa

A cheap, common heartworm medication that is already being used to fight other parasites in Africa could also dramatically interrupt transmission of malaria, potentially providing an inexpensive tool to fight a disease that kills almost 800,000 people each year, according to a new study published in the July edition of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

7 Jul 2011

Rapid diagnostic tests for malaria can be improved, says researcher

Rapid diagnostic tests for malaria are simple, reliable and robust. But errors occur, through misuse or because they aren't designed for primitive circumstances. Researcher Philippe Gillet put them to the test and made a series of suggestions for improvement. It resulted in a PhD at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp and Maastricht University.

22 Jun 2011

The Economist examines lack of attention to Plasmodium vivax malaria parasite

The Economist profiles Plasmodium vivax, a type of malaria that affects between 80 million to 390 million people worldwide annually with a cost to sufferers between $1.4 billion and $4 billion each year.

27 May 2011

PolyMedix presents new pre-clinical data on antimicrobial compounds at two scientific meetings

PolyMedix, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutic drugs to treat life-threatening infectious diseases and acute cardiovascular disorders, announced today that new pre-clinical data for its novel, defensin-mimetic antimicrobial compounds was recently presented at two prestigious scientific meetings, including the American Society of Microbiology.

25 May 2011

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher selected Fellow of the Royal Society

Internationally recognised malaria researcher Professor Alan Cowman from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK's peak academy promoting excellence in science.

21 May 2011

Mosquito's midgut bacteria can inhibit malaria parasite development

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a bacterium in field-caught mosquitoes that, when present, stops the development of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

13 May 2011

Genetically modified mosquitoes tested to prevent spread of malaria: Study

According to the latest study in the journal Nature, researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle found that after making specific genetic changes to a few mosquitoes and then allowing them to breed could eventually dramatically reduce the spread of the deadly disease malaria.

20 Apr 2011

Researchers test plants used in traditional African medicine against malaria

The malaria parasite has gradually developed resistance to the most commonly used medicines. To make matters worse, several mosquito species that host and transmit the parasite have become resistant to insecticides, making it difficult to eliminate them from populated areas.

8 Apr 2011

Study finds malaria as a serious problem for patients with landmine injuries

Malaria can complicate the course of disease in poor farmers with landmine injuries in underdeveloped countries, where both malaria and war injuries are frequent causes of illness and death. Tove Heger's doctoral research has charted the extent and effect of malaria on war-injured people and studied the potential for preventing them contracting the disease.

25 Mar 2011

Chemotherapy drugs also kill malaria parasite

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute (GHI) and Inserm (Institut National de la Sant- et de la Recherche M-dicale, the French government agency for biomedical research) has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria. The discovery could quickly open up a whole new strategy for combating this deadly disease.

9 Mar 2011

New insight into malaria

A group of researchers from EPFL's Global Health Institute and Inserm has discovered that a class of chemotherapy drugs originally designed to inhibit key signaling pathways in cancer cells also kills the parasite that causes malaria.

8 Mar 2011

Tropical seaweed's antifungal chemical cues may have promising antimalarial properties for humans

A group of chemical compounds used by a species of tropical seaweed to ward off fungus attacks may have promising antimalarial properties for humans. The compounds are part of a unique chemical signaling system that seaweeds use to battle enemies - and that may provide a wealth of potential new pharmaceutical compounds.

22 Feb 2011

Liquidia to explore PRINT particle technology with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative

Liquidia Technologies today announced a collaboration with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to explore the use of the company's PRINT® particle technology to design next generation malaria vaccines. PRINT technology offers unprecedented control of particle size, shape and chemistry in a highly consistent and scalable manufacturing process, and will be used to deliver a protein in combination with immune stimulating molecules.

10 Feb 2011