Off the wire
• Rampaging bull sends Australian campers scattering  • 1st LD-Writethru: Central bank to maintain policy despite inflation fears  • Pato eyes Europe return  • Sampdoria make move for Brazilian defender Geferson  • Aussie gov't to audit school prayer groups amid allegations of religious extremism  • Aussie consumer confidence up but still shaky: bank report  • Central bank to maintain policy despite inflation concerns  • Commentary: Post-2008 legacies set sustainable standard for Beijing 2022  • Tokyo shares end lower by break on stronger yen  • News Analysis: Aquino boasts of economic gains in his last address to nation, but poverty still rampant  
You are here: 　 Home

Australian scientists close to important malaria breakthrough

Xinhua, July 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australian researchers say they are a step closer to finding an improved treatment for malaria, which still causes an estimated 800,000 deaths worldwide each year.

The researchers, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, studied how the disease, which is contracted by 200 million people annually, invades the body and attacks the red blood cells.

In their research paper, published on Tuesday in the Nature Structure and Molecular Biology journal, the scientists reveal the first three-dimensional image of a "bus conductor" protein, which the mosquito-borne infectious disease uses to facilitate the infection.

Professor Alan Cowman, of WEHI, Australia's oldest medical research institute, said the image of the "bus conductor" protein was a significant breakthrough in treating the disease.

"Trying to design a drug to target a protein without knowing the shape is possible, but it's a bit like working in the dark," professor Cowman, who is joint head of the institute's malaria division, told News Limited on Tuesday.

Cowman said the finding would accelerate their development of a new drug to treat and possibly prevent the disease.

WEHI's Dr Justin Boddey added that targeting the protein could lead to the eradication of two species of malaria that can cause death in humans.

Plasmepsin V is the parasite that uses the malaria-facilitating protein.

"This parasite basically moves in and renovates the red blood cell," professor Cowman said.

"The first step in that process is selecting and exporting other proteins to go in and do the renovations, so the carpenters, plumbers and roofers."

The "bus conducted" protein allows Plasmepsin V to renovate other proteins, leaving the bacteria free to infect the required cell structures.

"Without that conductor protein, the parasite cannot renovate and dies," Cowman said.

"For the first time, we can see the exact shape of the protein, which is critical for the next step in developing better drugs," Cowman said.

The research paper highlights how WEHI members used the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne to map out the proteins' structure.

News Limited reported a deal has been struck by WEHI to partner with a major pharmaceutical company to turn the research into a public-accessible drug. Endi