14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a new scientific investigation, tens of millions of people, particularly in Africa, may no longer be resistant to malaria. The warning is based on the results of a study that revealed a genetic mutation in the malaria parasite.
The research was led by scientists at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute (CCLRI). Details of the work will be published in the November 21 and December 5 issues of the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Disease.
The malaria parasite is one of the most important health threats still left in the world, and is responsible for more than 100 million infections every year. A large percentage of those infected by the bug end up dying, especially in areas with low access to the necessary health care.
Tens of millions of Africans are now considered immune to the malaria parasite, but the new mutation could render this resistance useless. As such, the total number of yearly infections could skyrocket over the next few years, public health experts warn.
CWRU professor of international health, biology and genetics Peter A. Zimmerman led this investigation with CCLRI Genomic Medicine Institute staff member and CWRU assistant professor of genomics David Serre.
The two new PLoS papers describe the changes in the Plasmodium vivax parasite in great detail, highlighting the health security risks that come with it. Their research was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, through their National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
“We’ve found a duplication of a gene known to enable the parasite to infect red blood cells and two possible additional components to a more complex red cell invasion mechanism,” Zimmerman explains. The parasite, he adds, may now be able to infect Duffy-negative individuals.
These are people who lack the Duffy receptor on the surface of their red blood cells. These receptors are necessary for malaria to take hold, because the parasite uses Duffy-binding proteins to latch onto red cells. Without the receptors, the organism cannot gain a foothold.
But now the Malaria Atlas Project reveals that roughly 2.5 billion people (more than a third of the world's population) are at risk of developing P. vivax malaria. While more treatable than P. falciparum malaria, P. vivax infections can relapse from their stronghold in the human liver.
The new research also comes with a silver lining. Scientists hope to use the data they have collected in the study to create a new class of vaccines to incapacitate and destroy P. vivax malaria.