Institute of Molecular Medicine discovered mechanism by which the parasite is vulnerable to the toxicity of iron present in the human body, preventing it from multiplying January 21, 18:23 Writing / HR Dengue [Reuters] A team of researchers from the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) has discovered a mechanism by which the malaria parasite becomes vulnerable to the toxicity of iron present in the human body, preventing it from multiplying.
The team iMM Lisbon, led by researcher Maria Manuel Mota, which publishes this Thursday their study in the journal Nature Communications, found a new carrier of iron that the malaria parasite has, which is blocked makes this nutrient is becomes lethal, which opens the door to the development of new drugs. "Iron is essential to life, but it is also extremely toxic. That's what happens in our body, cells need iron and all organisms need iron, but when it is in excess cause very serious injury, and the malaria parasite is not different from that: needs iron but if you are in Excess Dies ", told Lusa the researcher.
What the research showed was that this new carrier is essential to the parasite so that it can store the iron that is more and keep it in a place that does not allow it to become toxic. This discovery is "very important", because in certain circumstances the malaria parasite may be in locations that have excess iron, which can make it very serious or lethal to the parasite.
"What we've shown is that if we have a malaria parasite that has this Carrier - we can do a parasite that does not have this carrier - what happens is that this parasite can not develop well," said Maria Mota. For this investigation, the team of researchers used a mutant strain of yeast in which the sequence for a particular protein carrier iron was removed from the DNA.
Due to this inability to produce iron carrier protein, the mutant yeast strain unable to grow in the presence of this micronutrient. From this experiment, the researchers have created mutant malaria parasites that removed the protein gene in question. Therefore, these parasites contained a high iron content within red blood cells, which due to its toxicity, resulting in a reduced number of parasites. The impact of this discovery for the future is to develop drugs they can inhibit this transporter. "If we block this transporter, the parasite will begin to accumulate iron, which makes it toxic, and will not be able to develop well," she added. On the other hand there are already drugs that are dependent on iron levels. Therefore, one of the studies to be carried forward "is to see how the presence or absence of this transporter affect the function and efficiency of these drugs."
The team iMM Lisbon, led by researcher Maria Manuel Mota, which publishes this Thursday their study in the journal Nature Communications, found a new carrier of iron that the malaria parasite has, which is blocked makes this nutrient is becomes lethal, which opens the door to the development of new drugs. "Iron is essential to life, but it is also extremely toxic. That's what happens in our body, cells need iron and all organisms need iron, but when it is in excess cause very serious injury, and the malaria parasite is not different from that: needs iron but if you are in Excess Dies ", told Lusa the researcher.
What the research showed was that this new carrier is essential to the parasite so that it can store the iron that is more and keep it in a place that does not allow it to become toxic. This discovery is "very important", because in certain circumstances the malaria parasite may be in locations that have excess iron, which can make it very serious or lethal to the parasite.
Due to this inability to produce iron carrier protein, the mutant yeast strain unable to grow in the presence of this micronutrient. From this experiment, the researchers have created mutant malaria parasites that removed the protein gene in question. Therefore, these parasites contained a high iron content within red blood cells, which due to its toxicity, resulting in a reduced number of parasites. The impact of this discovery for the future is to develop drugs they can inhibit this transporter. "If we block this transporter, the parasite will begin to accumulate iron, which makes it toxic, and will not be able to develop well," she added. On the other hand there are already drugs that are dependent on iron levels. Therefore, one of the studies to be carried forward "is to see how the presence or absence of this transporter affect the function and efficiency of these drugs."