For centuries people in China have used extracts from a plant called Sweet Wormwood to treat malaria. In August, British researchers published the results of their research outlining exactly how these drugs, known as artemisinins, work.
The prevailing hypothesis had been that artemisinins interfered molecules that the malaria parasite uses to consume haemoglobin. But the British researchers at St. George’s Hospital in London discovered that artemisinins in fact appear to disable part of the parasite that transfers calcium out of cells in order to stabilize calcium levels. With this disabled, calcium levels in the cells of the parasite grow until the cell dies.
Unlike other treatments for malaria, there is no known malarial resistance to artemisinins, raising the possibility that other drugs and vaccines could be developed that also target this calcium transfer mechanism.
Researcher Sanjreev Krishna told the BBC and Reuters,
It’ll take some time to apply our findings, or even to test new artemisinin derivatives which are being developed now. But you can be sure that’s what we’re going to be doing.
. . .
So far there is no evidence at all of any clinical resistance to artemisinins. It’s one of our best hopes for the future and frankly I don’t think we have many other options at the moment.
Sources:
Find could boost malaria fight. The BBC, August 20, 2003.
Scientists find how anti-malaria shrub works. Reuters, August 20, 2003.
Artemisinins target the SERCA of Plasmodium falciparum. U. Eckstein-Ludwig, Nature 424, 957 – 961, 21 August 2003.