Removing Resistance

Across the globe, doctors and scientists are fighting to make malaria a disease of the past. One of their main weapons is an antimalarial drug called artemisinin. In recent years, the malaria parasite’s resistance to the drug has been growing in Southeast Asia, threatening efforts to eradicate the disease. Now, the key gene associated with artemisinin resistance has been identified. The gene codes for a protein called K13, represented here as multicoloured spirals. Normally, K13 forms in the shape of a propeller and the ‘propeller blades’ are thought to be involved in the interaction with other proteins. Mutations – at the sites shown as orange spheres – alter their formation and have been found to be a major cause of drug resistance. This discovery is a significant step towards preventing the problem of malaria drug resistance that threatens health worldwide.

Written by Hayley Simon

Hayley Simon

Writer

Hayley, a third year Chemistry undergraduate at the University of Warwick, runs her own blog about science and writes for the University newspaper. She particularly enjoys talking endlessly about science to anyone who will listen.

• Image by Frédéric Ariey and colleagues
• Institut Pasteur, France
• Adapted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, copyright 2013
• Research published in Nature, January 2014