New compound may boost global fight against malaria

Researchers have discovered a novel antimalarial compound, which has the potential to treat malaria patients in a single dose, the University of Dundee announced on Wednesday.

The compound, DDD107498, was identified through a collaboration between the University of Dundee's Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).

DDD107498 not only has the potential to treat malaria efficiently, but can prevent the spread of malaria from infected people, and protect a person from developing the disease in the first place, according to a press release from the university.

As malaria continues to threaten almost half of the world's population, new drugs are urgently needed to treat the disease, which is growing more resistant to the current gold-standard antimalarial drug.

"The compound we have discovered works in a different way to all other antimalarial medicines on the market or in clinical development, which means that it has great potential to work against current drug-resistant parasites. It targets part of the machinery that makes proteins within the parasite that causes malaria," said Dr Kevin Read, joint leader of the project.

Despite the progress made, researchers said there is still some way to go before the compound can be given to patients.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature. Endit