Global Malaria News

A discovery has the potential to inhibit the spread of West Nile virus as well as Zika and dengue viruses. The researchers demonstrated that mammalian insulin activated an antiviral immunity pathway in mosquitoes, increasing the insects' ability to suppress the viruses. Since mosquito bites are the most common way humans are infected with West Nile, stopping the virus among the insects would protect human health.

An autoimmune attack on uninfected red blood cells likely contributes to anemia -- a shortage of red blood cells -- in people with malaria.

The spread of infectious diseases such as Zika depends on many different factors. Researchers were able to generate reliable maps for the transmission risk of the Zika virus in South America.

Female mosquitoes that have mated are more likely to transmit malaria parasites than virgin females, according to a new study.

Within seconds after an infected mosquito bites, the malaria parasite navigates the host skin and blood vessels to invade the liver, where it will stay embedded until thousands of infected cells launch malaria's deadly blood-stage infection. Now, for the first time, a team describes how malaria Plasmodium parasites prepare for this journey. Researchers say this knowledge may help identify new strategies to block transmission of the parasite.

Malaria is one of the most threatening infectious diseases in the world. An international team has now been able to investigate malaria pathogens in red blood cells in vivo using the BESSY II X-ray microscope and the ALBA and ESRF synchrotron sources. The studies reveal the mechanisms used by active substances to attack the pathogen. This could contribute to improvement of treatment strategies and drugs.

Rhomboid proteases are clinically relevant membrane proteins that play a key role in various diseases. Using solid-state NMR spectroscopy, researchers have now been able to watch rhomboid proteases in a native lipid environment at work. The obtained dynamic images will be useful for the development of new medication for diseases such as Parkinson's and malaria.

Immune cells can be the body's defenders and foes at the same time.

Since its invention during the Second World War for soldiers stationed in countries where malaria transmission rates were high, researchers have worked to pinpoint precisely how DEET actually affects mosquitoes.

Despite humanity's best efforts to eradicate malaria, the disease struck more than 200 million people in 2017, according to the World Health Organization. Worse yet, the parasite that causes malaria is developing resistance to many antimalarial drugs, including the mainstay, chloroquine. Researchers are actively searching for new treatments, and now, a group have found that acaí berry extracts can reduce parasites in the blood and prolong the survival of infected mice.

Low-income urban neighborhoods not only have more mosquitoes, but they are larger-bodied, indicating that they could be more efficient at transmitting diseases. So reports investigating how socioeconomics influences mosquito-borne disease risk in Baltimore, Maryland.

A computational analysis has identified key regions in the United States where model-based predictions of mosquito species distribution could be improved.

For the first time ever, a professor has observed a crystallized iron product called hemozoin being made in mammals, with widespread implications for future research and treatment of blood disorders. Findings could be used to treat sickle cell disease and malaria patients, while opening up diverse research avenues across immunology, parasitology, neuroscience, microbiology, and even urology.

Nonhuman primates with clinically undetectable Plasmodium relapse infections still harbor parasitic gametocytes that may be infectious to mosquitoes, according to a new study.

Modifying a class of molecules originally developed to treat the skin disease psoriasis could lead to a new malaria drug that is effective against malaria parasites resistant to currently available drugs.

A molecule once designed to cure the skin disease psoriasis appears to be particularly effective against malaria. The antimalarial properties were revealed thanks to one researcher's inspired hunch when the psoriasis drug discovery program came to a dead end. The candidate drug offers considerable potential for combating this infectious disease.

Mosquitoes are more likely to acquire the dengue virus when they feed on blood with low levels of iron, researchers report. Supplementing people's diets with iron in places where both iron deficiency anemia and dengue fever are a problem could potentially limit transmission of the disease, but there are risks.

The frigid waters of the Antarctic may yield a treatment for a deadly disease that affects populations in some of the hottest places on earth. Current medications for that scourge -- malaria -- are becoming less effective as drug resistance spreads. But researchers report that a peptide they isolated from an Antarctic sponge shows promise as a lead for new therapies.

Scientists have identified the regional character to Plasmodium falciparum across Africa. Malaria, infecting 219 million individuals in 2017, remains a threat to public health and regional stability. Human movement and the introduction of antimalarial drugs were drivers of this genetic diversity. Gene flow between sub-populations could spread resistance from one sub-population to the rest of the continent.

Researchers are exploring the relationship between microbial natural products and the gene clusters that enable their production. By learning to recognize what genes lead to what types of products, they hope to use genome sequencing to speed discovery of new natural products that may have key therapeutic properties.