Potential Vaccine That Could Help Eradicate Malaria Discovered

A key process during the invasion of the blood cell by the malaria parasite has been discovered by scientists.

With this new knowledge, the scientists from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are looking to collaborate with the industry on a vaccine against Malaria which can be developed within the next five years if accelerated by vaccine development companies.

Malaria - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prevention, Treatment
Malaria is caused by a parasite that enters blood through the bite of an infected mosquito. It is characterized by fever, vomiting, shivering, sweating and other symptoms.

Lead scientist Professor Peter Preiser said his team's scientific breakthrough will be instrumental in paving the way towards eradicating Malaria in the long run.

The parasitic diseases expert said that they have identified a region of the Malaria parasite which it uses to attach to a healthy blood cell then pushes itself into the cell.

"To prevent this invasion, we developed antibodies which can interfere with this invasion process. So imagine the parasite has the key to unlock a door to the red blood cell, but we muck the key up, so no matter how hard the parasite tries, the door just refuses to open," the researcher said.

Quiz on Malaria
Malaria is a common parasitic disease of the tropics, resulting in a million deaths every year. It is most commonly found in tropical countries. The symptoms of malaria include fever with chills, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Malaria fatalities can be reduced if they are detected early and treated appropriately

The patented discovery also opens the doors to new drug targets, which will allow scientists to develop more methods to interfere and disrupt the parasite's act of invasion.

The study is published in scientific journal Nature Communications.

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Source-ANI

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