Researchers at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in India and a unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in France have made a key discovery about a molecule that helps the malaria parasite infect human cells. The breakthrough, achieved at a facility in Grenoble, may represent an important step towards finding new therapies for treating the disease that is very common in India. The researchers are also investigating molecules important at an earlier phase of malaria infections, when parasites invade the liver.
The malarial parasite called Plasmodium, is passed to humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes and replicates inside red blood cells, which eventually burst.For the parasite to enter these cells, it first has to bind to the cell through interactions of proteins on the surfaces of red blood cells and the parasite. The study which will appear in an online edition of Nature, reveals key features of a protein on the surface of Plasmodium that permits it to bind.
"Until now we have not had a close-up view of the precise surface where the two proteins interact," explains Mr Amit Sharma, the corresponding author of the paper. "That surface is absolutely crucial in permitting the parasite to enter the cell. If we can determine its features in atomic detail, we may be able to find weak points that could make good targets for drugs."
In addition to interfering with the binding process, such drugs must also not be able to interfere with normal processes in red blood cells, something the researchers claim to have found in their study.
The malarial parasite called Plasmodium, is passed to humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes and replicates inside red blood cells, which eventually burst.For the parasite to enter these cells, it first has to bind to the cell through interactions of proteins on the surfaces of red blood cells and the parasite. The study which will appear in an online edition of Nature, reveals key features of a protein on the surface of Plasmodium that permits it to bind.
"Until now we have not had a close-up view of the precise surface where the two proteins interact," explains Mr Amit Sharma, the corresponding author of the paper. "That surface is absolutely crucial in permitting the parasite to enter the cell. If we can determine its features in atomic detail, we may be able to find weak points that could make good targets for drugs."
In addition to interfering with the binding process, such drugs must also not be able to interfere with normal processes in red blood cells, something the researchers claim to have found in their study.