Malarial biochemical process identified

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Swedish medical researchers have identified the biochemical mechanism that produces a particularly serious form of malaria in children.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control said knowing how the malaria parasite makes blood vessels become sticky paves the way for a future vaccine for the disease that kills some 2 million people annually.

Severe anemia, respiratory problems and cardiac dysfunction are common and life-threatening symptoms of serious malaria infection. The diseases are caused when the malaria bacteria Plasmodium falciparium infects red blood cells, which then accumulate and block the flow of blood in the capillaries of the brain and other organs.

The reason the blood cells conglomerate and lodge in the blood vessels is that once in the blood cell the parasite produces proteins that act as a glue. The challenge facing scientists has been to understand why certain proteins produce a stronger adhesive, causing more severe malaria.

The team led by Karolinska Institute Professor Mats Wahlgren, including scientists from Makerere University and the Medical Biotech Laboratories in Uganda, reports its findings in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.