Infectious diseases. Candidate drug breaks down malaria's walls.

Abstract

Approximately 300-500 million people are infected with malaria and more than 1 million die each year mostly children under the age of 5. Malaria parasites have become increasingly resistant to the most commonly used and least expensive antimalarial drugs. In France a team led by biochemist Henri Vial of the University of Montpellier II and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique reported on a new class of antimalarial drug. Unlike most antimalarial drugs this compound inhibits the parasites ability to synthesize protective membranes while sequestered away within the red blood cells. Dubbed as G25 the drug was designed to block the receptor choline transport which can be found both on the surface of infected erythrocytes and on the membrane of the parasite sequestered within attacking at the third stage of malarial life cycle in humans. G25 is said to be extremely potent and active against multidrug- resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The drug is both easy to make and inexpensive which is ideal for use in sub-Saharan Africa and in Southeast Asia.