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Malaria Study identifies new targets for possible vaccines

January 9, 2012 / Posted by in NEWS
NEW YORK / BURNABY, January 8, 2012
Molecular biology researchers at Simon Fraser University are beginning to piece together a puzzle that may help doctors and scientists save more than a million lives a year.  Christian Frech, lead author of a newly published study on malaria parasites announced that researches at SFU have isolated 44 genes unique to the malaria parasites that infect humans. Frech said these genes provide a new target for drugs to cure malaria and vaccines that can prevent it altogether. “We know from the past,” Frech explains, “that genes that are good vaccine targets are also species specific.”

Malaria Study identifies new targets for possible vaccines

Malaria Study identifies new targets for possible vaccines

Malaria is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that is estimated to affect over 250 million people a year. Some studies suggest the mortality rate to be as high as three million annually in tropical regions of the world, with young children, the elderly and pregnant women being most susceptible to infection and death.

Of the 200 different kinds of malaria, only two are deadly to humans. According to Frech, a vaccine that successfully targets one or more of the genes involved in either transmitting the parasites or helping them to evade the human immune system could save a million lives a year.

Dr. Jack Chen, a molecular biologist from SFU and co-author of the study explains that some of the genes are specifically active during developmental stages within the mosquito, saying “This suggests these genes could play an important role in the mosquito’s transmission of malaria to humans.”

Frech said the study, “Genome Comparison of Human and Non-Human Malaria Parasites Reveals Species Subset-Specific Genes Potentially Linked to Human Disease,” which is published in the Computation Biology journal of the Public Library of Science, “provides researches with a priority list of the parasites potential vulnerabilities.”