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 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.
Recent research reveals Zika virus modifies host odors, making infected individuals more attractive to mosquitoes, impacting disease transmission dynamics.
Girolline, a compound extracted from the sea sponge Pseudaxinyssa cantharella, has been investigated for possible antitumor effects and also found to have anti-malarial effects.
If your teeth have ever felt fuzzy after skipping a brushing, you've encountered biofilm-a slimy bacterial layer that clings to surfaces. In medical settings, biofilms make infections harder to treat when they form protective shields for bacteria on devices like catheters and implants.
A novel class of antibodies that binds to a previously untargeted portion of the malaria parasite could lead to new prevention methods, according to a study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published today in Science.
To better understand the highly varied characteristics that enable malaria parasites to adhere to red blood cells and elude the immune system, researchers have developed a new tool.
Insecticides have been used for centuries to counteract widespread pest damage to valuable food crops. Eventually, over time, beetles, moths, flies and other insects develop genetic mutations that render the insecticide chemicals ineffective.
Over the past two decades, new technologies have helped scientists generate a vast amount of biological data. Large-scale experiments in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and cytometry can produce enormous quantities of data from a given cellular or multicellular system.
The study on Odyssean malaria reveals increasing airport and luggage transmission of Plasmodium, emphasizing the importance of monitoring in Europe.
A single shift of a parasite from one host species to another can trigger catastrophic infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this, scientists continue to debate the role of species diversity in natural environments on the spread of these parasites.
The study identifies AgApyrase as a key protein in mosquito saliva, enhancing Plasmodium transmission by regulating blood clot breakdown and immune response.
A high-pitched buzzing sound in your ear is an unmistakable sign that a female mosquito is out on the hunt -; for they, not males, drink blood. Hearing that tone might make you turn to try to swat the pest. But for a male mosquito, that tone means it's time to mate.
While a mosquito bite is often no more than a temporary bother, in many parts of the world it can be scary. One mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, spreads the viruses that cause over 100,000,000 cases of dengue, yellow fever, Zika, and other diseases every year. Another, Anopheles gambiae, spreads the parasite that causes malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria alone causes more than 400,000 deaths every year. Indeed, their capacity to transmit disease has earned mosquitoes the title of deadliest animal.
Genetically engineered human skin bacteria can make mice less attractive to mosquitoes for 11 days. Mosquitoes transmit a host of deadly diseases, including malaria, West Nile, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika.
Researchers have gained new knowledge of how drugs bind to connexin molecules. These molecules form channels that allow neighboring cells to send direct messages to one another.
Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have discovered a link between malaria parasites’ ability to develop resistance to antimalarial drugs – specifically artemisinin (ART) – through a cellular process called transfer Ribonucleic acid (tRNA) modification.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a wide range of environments, each presenting unique challenges to human survival. Highlanders and lowlanders of PNG are striking examples of populations facing distinct environmental stress.
A team of scientists is urging colleagues worldwide to participate in what they refer to as “pathogen prospecting,” which involves locating archival mosquito specimens in collections and museums and examining them for pathogens that could have transmitted malaria to humans while feeding on their blood.
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