OXFORD, England, March 27 (UPI) -- A British-led study has identified a key protein's variants involved in the immune system's response to malaria, tuberculosis and other such diseases.
Professor Luke O'Neill of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, identified the protein -- called Mal -- in 2001. Now, Professor Adrian Hill of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford has shown there are two variants of Mal in humans and the combination of those variants determines how the immune system responds.
The insight suggests possible new therapies for such infectious diseases, the researchers said.
"Mal is in effect an alarm system for the immune system," said O'Neill. "When the body is infected with the malaria parasite or other germs, a set of sensors called 'toll-like receptors' lock onto the intruder (and) relay the detection via Mal, which wakes up the immune system to mobilize and defend us."
The results of the study -- funded by the Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Health Research Board, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore -- are published in the April edition of the journal Nature Genetics.
