Researchers Develop New Method To Help Find Deadly Malaria Parasite's Achilles Heel

The most deadly malaria parasite has protein 'wiring' that differs markedly from the cellular circuitry of other higher organisms, a finding which could lead to the development of antimalarial drugs that exploit that difference Researchers at UCSD have discovered that the single-cell parasite responsible for an estimated 1 million deaths per year worldwide from malaria has protein "wiring" that differs markedly from the cellular circuitry of other higher organisms, a finding which could lead to the development of antimalarial drugs that exploit that difference. The scientists will report in the Nov. 3 issue of Nature a comparison of newly discovered protein-interactions in Plasmodium falciparum with protein interactions reported earlier in four other well studied model organisms -- yeast, a nematode worm, the fruit fly, and a bacterium that causes digestive-tract ulcers in humans. The authors of the study, Trey Ideker, a professor of bioengineering at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, and two graduate students, Silpa Suthram and Taylor Sittler, said the malaria parasite's protein interactions "set it apart from other species."

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