Malaria News and Research

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Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium - when infected mosquitoes bite the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Even though this potentially fatal disease can be prevented and cured, each year 350-500 million cases of malaria still occur worldwide, and over one million people die, most of them young children in Africa south of the Sahara, where one in every five (20%) childhood deaths is due to the effects of the disease.

Malaria is so common in Africa because a lack of resources and political instability have prevented the building of solid malaria control programs. Experts say an African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever each year and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) as many as half of the world's population are at risk of malaria mainly in the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries and every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria.

New technology rapidly diagnoses sickle cell disease

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have developed a new way to diagnose diseases of the blood like sickle cell disease with sensitivity and precision and in only one minute.

16 Oct 2020

Dynamic map shows how immune cells fight microbes and remember future infections

Scientists have plotted the activity of an unlimited number of genes in the immune cells of mice over the course of an infection.

14 Oct 2020

Researchers trace neurons in mosquitoes that sense blood's distinctive flavor

It's one of the world's deadliest animals, and it has a taste for human blood: the mosquito. Mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria, dengue, and yellow fever that kill at least a half a million people each year. Now researchers are learning what humans taste like to mosquitoes, down to the individual neurons that sense blood's distinctive, delectable flavor.

13 Oct 2020

Researchers test the effect of hydroxychloroquine versus favipiravir in SARS-CoV-2−infected hamsters

Virologists at the KU Leuven Rega Institute have been working on two lines of SARS-CoV-2 research: searching for a vaccine to prevent infection, and testing existing drugs to see which one can reduce the amount of virus in infected people.

12 Oct 2020

Scientists shed light on immune evasion strategy used by malaria-causing parasite

The Plasmodium parasite, which transmits malaria to humans through infected mosquitos, triggers changes in human genes that alter the body's adaptive immune response to malarial infections, according to a team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi.

12 Oct 2020

Study finds how the malaria parasite can withstand fever's heat

Even when a person suffering from malaria is burning up with fever and too sick to function, the tiny blood-eating parasites lurking inside them continue to flourish, relentlessly growing and multiplying as they gobble up the host's red blood cells.

6 Oct 2020

Researchers develop new tools that control the balance of genetic inheritance

In the last 10 years, scientists have designed a range of novel tools that regulate the balance of genetic inheritance.

From UC San Diego 22 Sep 2020

SMART researchers discover a novel method to produce human red blood cells

Researchers from Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, have discovered a new way to manufacture human red blood cells (RBCs) that cuts the culture time by half compared to existing methods and uses novel sorting and purification methods that are faster, more precise and less costly.

15 Sep 2020

New cell atlas can help control mosquito-borne diseases

The first cell atlas of mosquito immune cells recently created by researchers can help interpret how mosquitoes combat various infections, including malaria.

28 Aug 2020

Study reveals a mechanism for lower-quality immune response in patients with severe COVID-19

The release of massive amounts of proteins called cytokines can lead to some of the most severe symptoms of COVID-19.

From Harvard Medical School 20 Aug 2020

New technique could accelerate drug research for various diseases

Alicyclic compounds are groups of organic chemical compounds that have led to the development of a number of medications.

19 Aug 2020

HLA-G gene linked to male-to-female ratio at birth, survival of fetuses, and preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is globally a leading cause of illness and deaths among mothers and their babies. This severe pregnancy disorder occurs in up to five percent of all pregnancies.

15 Jul 2020

Modeling research shows increase in HIV, TB, and malaria deaths due to COVID-19 pandemic

But there is still an opportunity to substantially reduce the death toll by prioritizing the most critical services, specifically antiretroviral therapy for HIV, timely TB diagnosis and treatment, and provision of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets for malaria, researchers say.

14 Jul 2020

Human papilloma viruses may play a causal role in prostate cancer

Human papilloma viruses (HPVs) - a common group of viruses known to cause cervical cancers - may also have a causal role in prostate cancer, according to a literature review published in the open access journal Infectious Agents and Cancer, supporting the case for universal HPV vaccination.

14 Jul 2020

Study reveals malaria's secret to surviving in the blood stream

New research from the Francis Crick Institute has found how the malaria parasite protects itself from toxic compounds in red blood cells.

2 Jul 2020

Parasite infection associated with the overall composition of gastrointestinal microbiome

Parasite infections are a constant presence for many people who live in tropical regions, particularly in less industrialized areas.

15 Jun 2020

KAUST scientists reveal the genetic metronome within malaria parasites

The parasites responsible for malaria seem to march to their own beat.The mystery behind the molecular basis of how these parasites synch their rhythm in replication to the host's clock-driven rhythms has been solved.

10 Jun 2020

Study reveals how respiratory syncytial virus breaks into cells to cause infection

New research from University of Alberta microbiologists has shed new light on how the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)--one of the most common viral infections--breaks into our cells to cause infection.

4 Jun 2020

Research suggests new possibility for how glucose transporters operate

Some of the most essential processes on the planet involves water and energy entering and leaving cells.

2 Jun 2020

Pancreatic tumors hijack basic cell mechanism for immune evasion

Pancreatic cancer cells use a normal waste removal process to hide tags on their surfaces that would otherwise let the immune system destroy them, a new study finds. Published online April 22 in Nature, the study results help to answer a longstanding question: why are pancreatic cancers so resistant to immunotherapies, which use the body's own immune defenses to fight cancer?

24 Apr 2020