Research Yields Promising Single-Dose Malaria Treatment
- 8 years ago
A new experimental treatment for malaria has been shown to cure the disease in a single dose.
A new experimental treatment for malaria has been shown to cure the disease in a single dose, reports Popular Science.
According to the Broad Institute which conducted the research, “Malaria [is] a mosquito-borne disease [that] sickens over 200 million people and kills half a million people each year – mostly African children.”
Though treatments have been developed in the past, many lose their effectiveness due to resistance.
Existing drugs also typically address only “the symptomatic blood-stage parasites,” when there are two other phases involving the liver and transmission.
To address these issues, the team screened the Broad’s entire library of traditionally underrepresented compounds to find the ones that could fight the dangerous malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum across all three stages.
They found several that fit the criteria including a kind that eliminated the parasite in mice for 30 days with just one dose.
The researchers’ next step is to “assess the safety of the...series and address any liabilities uncovered before initiating a human clinical trial.”
A new experimental treatment for malaria has been shown to cure the disease in a single dose, reports Popular Science.
According to the Broad Institute which conducted the research, “Malaria [is] a mosquito-borne disease [that] sickens over 200 million people and kills half a million people each year – mostly African children.”
Though treatments have been developed in the past, many lose their effectiveness due to resistance.
Existing drugs also typically address only “the symptomatic blood-stage parasites,” when there are two other phases involving the liver and transmission.
To address these issues, the team screened the Broad’s entire library of traditionally underrepresented compounds to find the ones that could fight the dangerous malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum across all three stages.
They found several that fit the criteria including a kind that eliminated the parasite in mice for 30 days with just one dose.
The researchers’ next step is to “assess the safety of the...series and address any liabilities uncovered before initiating a human clinical trial.”