PHA-Exchange> New Treatment for Severe Malaria

[Claudio]

From: "Leela McCullough" <leela at healthnet.org>
> http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=53132
>
> The most dangerous form of malaria is difficult to treat and claims two 
> million lives a year. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden 
> have developed a powerful new weapon against the disease.
>
> Severe anaemia, respiratory problems and encephalopathy are common and 
> life-threatening consequences of serious malaria infection. The diseases 
> are caused when   P. falciparium infects the red blood cells, which then 
> accumulate in large amounts, blocking the flow of blood in the capillaries 
> of the brain and other organs.
>
> The reason that the blood cells conglomerate and lodge in the blood 
> vessels is that once in the blood cell the parasite produces proteins that 
> project from the surface of the cell and bind with receptors on other 
> blood cells and on the vessel wall, and thus act like a glue. The 
> challenge facing scientists has been to break these bonds so that the 
> infected blood cells can be transported by the blood stream into the 
> spleen and destroyed.
>
> Contact: Katarina Sternudd
> http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=138&l=en
> mailto:info at ki.se