Scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding how the parasite that causes malaria is able to multiply at such an alarming rate, which could be a vital clue in discovering how it has evolved, and how it can be stopped.
Dinesh Gupta and team from the Translational Bioinformatics lab at ICGEB New Delhi have published their latest findings in Cell Reports with collaborators heading the research at the University of Nottingham and the University of California Riverside.
“For the first time, scientists have shown how certain molecules play an essential role in the rapid reproduction of parasite cells, which cause this deadly disease.”
This could be the next step towards being able to prevent the malaria parasite from reproducing and could help eradicate one of the world’s biggest killer infections.
The research is co-led by Rita Tewari, Professor of Parasite Cell Biology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham and Professor Karine Le Roch at the University of California Riverside, USA.
The study, which is published in Cell Reports, was a collaborative effort with scientists from the Universities of Dundee, and Warwick in the UK, the University of Bern, Switzerland, ICGEB, India, and the Francis Crick Institute.
Further Reading:
University of Nottingham: Press release
UCRiverside News: Press release
Cell Reports
R. Pandey, S. Abel, M. Boucher, et al. 11 Feb 2020. Plasmodium Condensin Core Subunits SMC2/SMC4 Mediate Atypical Mitosis and Are Essential for Parasite Proliferation and Transmission Open Access
Condensin in asexual cell multiplication Condensin in Male cell multiplication
