Latest Plasmodium Stories

Until very recently, it was unclear why infection with malaria causes fever and, under severe circumstances, an infectious death. Although the parasite has an abundance of potentially toxic molecules, no one knew which ones were responsible for the inflammatory syndrome associated with disease. Now, a new study identifies a novel DNA-sensing mechanism that plays a role in the innate immune response to the parasite that causes malaria. The findings, published online August 4th by Cell Press in...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Killing over 780,000 people each year, malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. Finding a cure has been the goal of scientists for many years. Now a cheap and common medication used to treat lice in children and heartworm in pets, could add malaria to the list of diseases it helps control.According to the World Health Organization, new approaches to combat malaria are in constant demand. Current methods of avoiding transmission rely mainly on sleeping under...

ROCKVILLE, Md., June 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sanaria's mission is to develop and commercialize whole-parasite malaria vaccines that confer high-level, long-lasting protection against malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. In the process of developing these vaccines, Sanaria has developed the capacity to manufacture and assay malaria parasites and mosquitoes in a highly regulated, cGMP compliant, industrial setting. These parasites, mosquitoes, and assay services...

A new study by a team of University of Notre Dame researchers offers a wealth of information about the rhythmic nature of gene expression in Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito species that transmits the malaria parasite from person to person. Each year, roughly 250 million people suffer from malaria and that results in one million deaths, mostly pregnant women and children under five years of age.Mosquitoes, like all animals, show daily rhythms in behavior and physiology. The rhythmic behaviors...

(Ivanhoe Newswire)--Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium and results in more than 750,000 deaths annually, but what if there was a more effective approach to curing it? Malaria is transported from one person to another by an infected mosquito. When the mosquito bites a human, a parasite called sporozoite is deposited in the skin. It then travels to the liver cells and multiplies to the point of affecting red blood cells and causing clinical symptoms. Common symptoms of malaria...

Malaria is a devastating disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Hundreds of millions of new cases of malaria are reported each year, and there are more than 750,000 malaria-related deaths annually. As a result, there is an urgent need for vaccines to combat infection. Now, a new study uncovers a powerful strategy for eliciting an immune response that can combat the parasite during multiple stages of its complex life cycle and describes...

For tens of thousands of years, the genomes of malaria parasites and humans have been at war with one another. Now, University of Pennsylvania geneticists, in collaboration with an international team of scientists, have developed a new picture of one way that the human genome has fought back.The international team was led by Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor with appointments in the genetics department in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine and the biology department of...

Every year, 10,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 newborn babies are killed by the malaria parasite. Doctors all around the globe have for years been looking in vain for a medical protection, and now researchers from the University of Copenhagen have found the biochemically weakness of the lethal malaria parasite. With a grant of 15 million DKK (approximately 3 million USD) from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation and close corporation with two Danish biotech companies, the...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Killing about a million people a year, malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. Ninety percent of its victims live in Africa. The genomes of malaria parasites and humans have been battling one another for tens of thousands of years. Geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered new evidence of one way the human genome has attacked back. Since different populations show different reactions to the parasites that cause malaria, the...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Snug inside a human red blood cell, the malaria parasite hides from the immune system and fuels its growth by digesting hemoglobin, the cell's main protein. The parasite, however, must obtain additional nutrients from the bloodstream via tiny pores in the cell membrane. Now, investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found the genes that malaria parasites use to create these...