Protein Discovery May Lead to New Drugs for Malaria

Having discovered how a protein called DHFR produced by a microscopic parasite protects itself against current malaria drugs, scientists believe they can design a new generation of drugs for malaria that will be effective.

The pyrimethamine family of drugs is among the most effective classes of antimalarial drugs. Pyrimethamine blocks the function of the protein DHFR, produced by a parasite carried by mosquitoes. By using genetic engineering methods and laboratory strains of bacteria to produce large quantities of DHFR, scientists have been able to identify the ways in which DHFR changes to protect itself from the effects of these drugs. They found that the same part of the protein is always changed.

"We can now use this protein structure to design a new generation of drugs that makes it possible to overcome resistant strains of malaria,” said Professor Malcolm Walkinshaw, of the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology (UK). "This is a real breakthrough. Drug resistance is a major issue for all infectious diseases, not just malaria.” Dr. Walkinshaw led the study along with Professor Yongyuth Yuthavong of the BIOTEC Institute in Bangkok (Thailand).

Malaria claims up to two million lives each year and accounts for the death of one child every 30 seconds in Africa. The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust (London, UK).





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