Curing Malaria – New Compound Cures with a Single Dose

December 8, 2014 – A collaborative research team led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, announced on December 5th that it had developed an anti-malarial compound that marshals the immune system to destroy malaria-infected red blood cells while leaving healthy ones alone. The preliminary results of this research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The compound is called (+)-SJ733. It is a molecule that kick starts the immune system to eliminate malaria-infected cells. A single dose administered in a mouse study killed 80% of infected cells in 24 hours aind in 48 hours test mice were disease free. Next step is safety trials in healthy adults to ensure no untoward side effects.

How does it work? The molecule-based compound inhibits the ATP4 protein in the malaria parasite. ATP4 is critical to maintaining the sodium levels in plasmodium, the parasite responsible for the disease. By inhibiting ATP4 a malaria-infected red blood cell begins to shrink in size and eventually becomes rigid, a normal characteristic of an aging red blood cell. And it is that aging which induces the immune system to do what it does normally, clean up and get rid of old blood cells. The infographic below clearly illustrates the impact of the compound on malaria-infected blood cells.

Today 3.4 billion, almost half the world’s population is at risk of malaria. And malaria is moving poleward as climate change affects the breeding range of the mosquitoes that carry the plasmodium parasite. In 2012 the world saw 207 million malaria cases and an estimated 627,000 deaths. The most vulnerable today are those living in the Developing World and in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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