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.
Researchers from the Universities of Bath and Leeds (UK) have made a significant advance in the fight against malaria by uncovering a promising new potential target for drug discovery.
Researchers at the University of Oregon have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can read genetic code the way large language models like ChatGPT read text. Scanning the genome for biological mutation patterns, the computer model traces pairs of genes back in time to their last common ancestor.
The research, published today (24 April) in Nature Microbiology, describes how the new tool, called TRAnsmision Clustering of Strains (TRACS), uses genomics to distinguish between closely related bacterial strains.
Researchers from Brown University and their collaborators have developed a new way to measure the properties of cells - an important development, they say, because accurate measurements of changes in cell elasticity can be used to better understand diseases, diagnose patient symptoms and provide more accurate prognoses.
Anopheles darlingi mosquitoes-a major vector of malaria in South America-are evolving in response to insecticides, which may make them harder to kill and malaria more difficult to control, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Over the years, cell biology has built a detailed picture of how cells compartmentalize their internal functions. Central to this organization is the nucleus, which houses the genetic material and is separated from the cytoplasm by a robust nuclear envelope.
In a new study published in Cell, scientists in the Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveal that microbes living in similar habitats are more alike than those simply inhabiting the same geographical region.
Researchers from The Universities of Manchester and Birmingham have identified the exact nerve cells in the brain that drive important behavioral changes in female fruit flies after they mate.
Antibiotic resistance (AR) has steadily accelerated in recent years to become a global health crisis. As deadly bacteria evolve new ways to elude drug treatments for a variety of illnesses, a growing number of "superbugs" have emerged, ramping up estimates of more than 10 million worldwide deaths per year by 2050.
According to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the enzyme biliverdin reductase A (BVRA) protects neurons directly from oxidative stress, regardless of whether it produces the yellow pigment bilirubin.
New research from Johns Hopkins Medicine shows that the enzyme biliverdin reductase A (BVRA) plays a direct protective role against oxidative stress in neurons, independent of its role producing the yellow pigment bilirubin.
In the war against mosquito-borne illnesses that claim the lives of hundreds of thousands annually, researchers have sought an unexpected partner: a fungus that emits a floral scent.
Genetic modification of mosquitoes with the FREP1Q224 allele shows significant promise for malaria elimination, maintaining fitness and reducing infections.
Mosquitoes kill more people each year than any other animal. In 2023, the blood-sucking insects infected a reported 263 million people with malaria, leading to nearly 600,000 deaths, 80% of which were children.
A new microchip invented by Scripps Research scientists can reveal how a person's antibodies interact with viruses-using just a drop of blood.
Mosquito-borne diseases kill more than 700,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization, and the mosquitos that spread the disease are difficult to control.
Washington State University researchers have discovered how the bacteria that cause anaplasmosis and Lyme disease hijack cellular processes in ticks to ensure their survival and spread to new hosts, including humans.
While emerging evidence suggests pesticides can be toxic to the mix of microorganisms in the digestive system, a new study is the first to map changes to specific gut bacteria based on interactions between human microbes and insect-killing chemicals observed in the lab and an animal model.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) have discovered that the evolution of a family of exported proteins in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum allowed it to infect people.
Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and their collaborators have created a comprehensive map of all the genes essential for blood infections in Plasmodium knowlesi, a parasite that causes malaria in humans.
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