SWEDISH SCIENTISTS FIND NEW TREATMENT FOR SEVERE MALARIA

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, have developed a powerful new treatment for most dangerous form of malaria, which is difficult to treat and claims 2 million lives a year.

Serious malaria infection occurs when the malaria bacterium P.falciparium infects the red blood cells and produces proteins that project from the surface of the cell and bind with receptors on other blood cells and on the vessel wall, blocking the flow of blood in the capillaries of the brain and other organs. The challenge facing scientists has been to break these bonds so that the infected blood cells can be transported by the blood stream into the spleen and destroyed.

Researchers have developed a substance that prevents infected blood cells from binding. The substance also releases blood cells that are already bound. Using this method, scientists have been able to effectively treat severe malaria in rats and primates.

Previously, the anticoagulant heparin was used to treat severe malaria, but it was found to cause internal bleeding.