[ad_1]
Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes – Photo of the archive
An international team of researchers has adopted a new approach to malaria by eliminating parasites that spread through the liver before reaching the blood.
Female mosquitoes transmit plasmodic parasites that multiply in the liver before circulating in the blood after about 10 days. At this stage, symptoms begin to manifest as fever, headache, joint pain, anemia, and sometimes fatal breathing problems. Most of them are children from Africa.
The team of researchers, who published the results of his research in the journal "Science", is looking for a way to eliminate parasites in the liver before reaching the blood and causing the symptoms of disease, the majority of antimalarial drugs targeting parasites in the blood.
"It's very difficult to focus on the liver phase," said Elizabeth Winsler, professor of pharmacology at the University of California, USA. "It is difficult to enter the cells and the risk of side effects increases."
"We have been trying very hard to develop drugs that eliminate the disease rather than treatments that eliminate the parasites before they cause the disease."
"The results of the research are encouraging, provided that they are effective for several months," said Jean Godard, professor of public health at Aix-Marseille University.
The world still needs to find a radical solution to mosquito-borne malaria, despite billions of dollars in investment in the fight against the disease.
Source link
