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Scientists find malaria's 'sticky' genes

malaria inside red blood cell

By disrupting one of the parasite's genes, it's possible to prevent infected red blood cells from sticking to blood vessels (Source: WEHI)

Australian scientists have identified a potential new way of combating the global scourge of malaria, by pinpointing eight genes that help the disease-causing parasite remodel our red blood cells.

Malaria kills up to three million people every year, mostly in tropical parts of the world. The disease is spread by mosquitoes that inject victims with microscopic parasites that infect healthy red blood cells.

The parasites cause radical changes to the structure of the blood cells, hijacking them to produce scores of offspring that go on to infect other cells.

"It's like remodeling a house so you can live in it and raise a family," said researcher Professor Alan Cowman from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.

His group's research will be published this week in the journal Cell.

Sticky cells

Blood cells infected by the malaria parasite lose their normal rigid shape and develop knobs on their surface, causing them to stick to blood vessel walls and stop circulating smoothly.

"This stops the cells from being cleared by the spleen, which is a protective mechanism for the parasite," Cowman says. "It's absolutely essential for the parasite to survive in our bodies."

Infected cells can also cause blood vessels to clog, a factor in some of the more serious effects of malaria such as cerebral malaria, where the disease affects the brain.

By genetically manipulating Plasmodium falciparum - the most severe form of malaria parasite - the researchers were able to identify eight genes that produce proteins needed to change the cells in this way.

Easily disrupted

When the team disrupted just one of the genes, they showed that the infected cells no longer stuck to the walls of blood vessels.

"It really is a big step in understanding the parasite itself," Cowman says.

"In the long term it points toward concentrating on some of these proteins so that they don't work any more, so the parasite would be cleared much more efficiently."

It is also possible that researchers could use their new understanding to develop weakened forms of the parasite to use in a vaccine against the disease, he says.

Tags: malaria, biotechnology