The compound that detectives spray at crime scenes to find trace amounts of blood may be used one day to kill the malaria parasite.
Luminol glows blue when it encounters the hemoglobin in red blood cells. And now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that they can trick malaria-infected red blood cells into building up a volatile chemical stockpile that can be set off by luminol’s glow. To achieve this, the scientists gave infected red blood cells an unusual amino acid and used luminol’s glow to trigger the chemical, killing the parasite.
“The light that luminol emits is enhanced by the antimalarial drug artemisinin,” said senior author Daniel Goldberg, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and molecular microbiology. “We think these agents could be combined to form an innovative treatment for malaria.”
The results are available online in the journal eLife.
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