Anti-malarial drugs given to infants can protect them for two years
...is week's issue of THE LANCET. Infection with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum kills about a million African children every year. Using malaria drugs regularly can protect children from malaria episodes and death. However, stopping this treatment can be followed by increased risk of malaria, suggesting tha...Anti-malaria drug combination could help address treatment crisis in Africa
...use of the rapid emergence of drug resistance. The parasite that causes the most severe form of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, is resistant to the anti-malaria drug chloroquine in nearly all the areas where the disease is rife. This, along with the fact that resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine is spreadi...Reducing malarial transmission in Africa
... gametocytes - the infective form of the malarial parasite - in their blood. The numbers of gametocytes carried and how able they were to infect mosquitoes 7 days later was also reduced by the six dose regimen. Although the results are promising, some patients may have difficulty taking a six-dose regimen, a...NIAID scientists unveil mechanism behind resistance to severe malaria
...tion, rosetting and cytoadherence--all depend on a parasite protein called PfEMP-1. To evade the immune system, malaria parasites produce proteins, including PfEMP-1, that remodel the red blood cell's surface to their advantage. For example, when spikes of PfEMP-1 are distributed evenly over the surface of an...Ten million Africans treated by international disease treatment programme
...uted by human sewage. After entering the body, the parasite travels to the liver, where it grows to a worm about a centimetre in length. Male and female worms pair up and then live for many years in the blood vessels around the bladder and intestine, feeding off the blood. Female worms lay many eggs per day, ...Parasite genome sequences offer hope for new drugs and vaccines, Science studies say
... initiative also identified genes specific to each parasite and this information could be useful for parasite-...much easierto identify genes that are critical for parasite survival. Genesencoding proteins that are involved in critical biological processesoften serve as dr...Three deadly parasite genomes sequenced
...e-specific proteins, providing clues about how the parasite exploits its insect and mammalian hosts. This, in turn, suggests ways to battle the parasite with drugs specific to each life stage, says Dr. Rogers. At present, there are few therapies for Cha...Not enough is known about treating malaria in pregnancy, researchers say
...g that they were ill and infected with the malaria parasite but not at immediate risk of dying from the disease. The studies included 513 women in their second or third trimester of pregnancy. The studies tested a variety of antimalarial drugs, which complicated the reviewers' task of determining if any of th...Researchers discover how malaria parasite disperses from red blood cells
... have determined the sequence in which the malaria parasite disperses from the red blood cells it infects. Th...xander, M.D., Director of the NICHD. "The malaria parasite is growing resistant to the drugs used to treat it, and new knowledge is essential for developing st...Researchers call for better public health campaigns to control and eliminate river blindness
... for at least 18 million people. The flies carry a parasite called Onchocerca volvulus, which lays microscopic worms in the human host. The body's immune response towards these worms can lead to eye opacities, eventually causing blindness, and in some cases, skin disease. The team have developed a mathematica...Notch signaling molecule important in type 2 immunity
... Th1 response to an infection by the intracellular parasite Leishmania major, showing that Notch signaling is specifically required for the Th2 arm of the immune system. These findings indicate that regulating Notch signaling may have a therapeutic role in treating diseases caused by abnormally increased Th2 ...New study: Drug combo against AIDS-related infections also prevents malaria
... prophylaxis might increase the number of malarial parasite strains resistant to SP treatment, thereby increasing the risk that SP treatment may fail in HIV-infected individuals who contract malaria. These concerns prompted Christopher V. Plowe, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Maryland School of ...New malaria vaccine shows promise in early clinical trial
...unteers were able to inhibit growth of the malaria parasite in two independent laboratory assays. "A particular strength of the MSP3 trial is that functional assays [tests to see whether the vaccine could kill parasites] were utilized to assess the quality of the antibody response produced," say Brendan Cra...Multilateral initiative on malaria seeks international effort
...you are talking about scientists with expertise in parasite biology, entomologists who can focus on insect control, and toxicologists who will understand the effect of drug compounds. You also need epidemiologists, biostatisticians and experts in bioethics, and you need the information technology and other r...Trial shows malaria vaccine could protect young children from disease for 18 months
... a range of clinical disease caused by the malaria parasite for at least 18 months, concludes a randomised trial published online today (Tuesday November 15, 2005) by The Lancet. Early trials of the RTS, S/AS02A vaccine have shown that the vaccine is safe, well tolerated, and can trigger an immune response. I...Ancient Chinese remedy shows potential in preventing breast cancer
...and other structures, killing the cell.The malaria parasite can't eliminate iron in the blood cells it eats, and stores it. Artemisinin makes that stored iron toxic to the parasite. The same appears to be true for cancer. Because they multiply so rapidly, most cancer cells have a high rate of iron uptake. The...Identified: DNA that controls the malaria parasite's disguise mechanism
...orted that to avoid detection and destruction, the parasite controls expression of 60 key virulence genes, eff...ite's capability to change its disguise. With the parasite thereby converted into a stable and unchanging target, the immune system of the human host should be...Older drugs may be good stopgap treatment for malaria in Africa
...om the blood at a particularly infectious stage of parasite development, according to Dr. Hasifa Bukirwa of th...d to clinically insignificant levels. Reducing the parasite load is important because it reduces the spread of the disease, the reviewers say. Bukirwa and Critc...Malaria early-warning system shows promise in tackling epidemics
... temperatures and rainfall drive both mosquito and parasite dynamics. In semi-arid Botswana, the National Malaria Control Programme has developed an early-warning system based on population vulnerability, rainfall, and health surveillance to predict and detect unusual changes in the seasonal pattern of diseas...$5.4 million grant to Yale EPH to study parasitic disease spread by female sand flies
...d to mobilize the host response of eliminating the parasite and the promotion of healing. "We are bringing the three dimensions of CL together in this study. We are working with the human cases together with the roles of the vector and of the reservoir animals," said Leonard Munstermann, senior research sc...