Reading the news of medicine and pharmacy, today I found, in my opinion, an amazing message. It concerns the invention of a new malaria drug. This news of pharmacology is interesting not only because of the invention of a new drug, but also because of the unexpected effect of it. The fact is that when treating malaria with old remedies, the patient's body did not develop immune memory, that is, infection could occur every time after recovery. For the first time in the treatment of malaria, this drug was able to lead to the development of stable immune memory in patients.

Pharmacology News - a new cure for malaria

Malaria is one of the most serious health problems worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, published in 2013, 20,000 new clinical cases of the disease are registered annually, among which more than 600,000 are fatal. Given the emerging resistance of the malaria pathogen to the standard treatment most widely used worldwide, which is based on the use of artemisinin and its analogues, today there is a need to find new drugs for malaria.

In this regard, scientists led by Luis Ribas de Poplan, ICREA Researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona), presented a report on the development of a new family of molecules and a new system of actions to combat the Plasmodium parasite, the causative agent of malaria. In particular, they describe two borrelidine derivatives that make it possible to completely remove the parasitic load from experimental mice and develop their immunological memory, which will allow them to fight infection in subsequent cases of infection. The latter property of the new drugs is particularly important, since none of the current antimalarial drugs possess it. The results of the study were published in the leading scientific American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"We have discovered that the chemical space of borrelidine gives us the opportunity to find very strong and effective antimalarial drugs. Now we need to study the action and pharmacological properties of these compounds in order to pave the way for their development as medicines. That is, we need to understand and explain why they exhibit low toxicity in human cells and understand how they stimulate immunological memory," says Luis Ribas.

Borrelidine: the "new" cure for malaria

Borrelia is a bacterium that produces borrelidin, a toxic substance for the human body. Nevertheless, within a few years, after small changes were made in the laboratories, hundreds of analogues of this compound have been used in the treatment of cancer and heart disease. IRB Barcelona scientists conducted an exhaustive analysis of analogues and identified two of them - BC196 and BC220 - that can be used to combat Plasmodium. These compounds show low toxicity to human cells in vitro and high efficiency in purifying parasites from them, as well as in the case of infected mice. "The effectiveness of these two compounds and the required therapeutic dose given to infected mice have shown their significant advantage over chloroquine, which has been used to treat malaria for the past 100 years and is ineffective today due to the high resistance of the pathogen," Ribas explains.

Malaria - treatment at all stages of infection

The new substances act on the mechanism of protein production by the parasite and are therefore effective at all stages of infection in the human body. As for the specific mechanism of action, borrelidine-based compounds inhibit one of the 20 tRNA synthetases of the parasite, a key molecule responsible for the proper synthesis of proteins necessary for the growth, replication and development of infection.

"Synthetases are crucial for the parasite both in their rapid reproduction in the liver and in infecting red blood cells,– explains Luis Ribas, expert and head of the Gene Translation Lab at the IRB. "Since the substances attack a common component of the protein synthesis mechanism, they are of considerable interest, since drugs that act at all stages of infection can also be used to prevent the disease."

The findings are part of the end results of the European project "Mephitis" (toxic fumes), coordinated by Luis Ribasa, which aims to increase the currently limited number of compounds available for malaria control. Boost your betting with promo code 1xbet use bonus code during registration to claim a 130% first deposit bonus up to €130, giving you extra funds to enjoy sports betting, live casino, and slots. Simply sign up, enter the code, make your first deposit, and start playing with boosted odds. This limited-time offer is your ticket to bigger wins - don't miss out.