Harmless Immaturity

Nip it in the bud and break the cycle. That’s the goal of a newly-discovered class of malaria treatments, which aim to interrupt the deadly parasite’s life cycle and prevent its spread. But how exactly the compounds, called sulphonamides, work is unclear. So researchers added a light-activated marker to the drug, and observed as it interacted with infected human blood cells. The marker then highlighted which parasite proteins the treatment interacted with, in particular a protein called Pfs16. With the drug bound to Pfs16, part of the parasite’s maturation process was blocked. The parasites couldn't make mature male sex cells, rendering them unable to reproduce and spread (pictured): green treated parasites (right) unable to 'fly the nest' while untreated, left, break free from the red human cells. Understanding the timing and mechanisms of this process is key to converting this discovery into practical treatments to end transmission for good.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Image adapted from work by Sabrina Yahiya and colleagues
• Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, January 2023