Mosquitoes are becoming a growing menace world over, with malaria being a common yet widespread problem. Around 300 to 500 million people in Africa are said to be infected with malaria each year, killing 1million of them and infecting a child every 30 sec.
To top it up the complex lifecycle of malarial parasite which begins inside the mosquito and eventually moves on to us humans, via mosquito bites, makes it all the more difficult to attack it with vaccines or other drugs. Not only this, recent research shows that malarial parasites are able to regulate the number of male and female off-springs to produce, in order to enhance survival and infection odds.
However the gene targeted now by the researchers is identified as the one, allowing the parasite to produce egg like oocysts, which help the parasite to reproduce.
"When you take away the gene you see the effect of missing that gene on the parasite," said Dan Klaerke, a physiologist at the University of Copenhagen who worked on the study.
The researchers were working on infected mice, concentrating mainly on the potassium ion channels in the animals. These ion channels control the electrical charge of nerves, muscles and heart in all plants and animals. They however found two new channels controlling the reproductive system of the malarial parasites.
The scientists believe it to be a major breakthrough, because, if the reproduction of parasites is stopped the spread of malaria via mosquito bite can be checked.
"The practical discovery may be that blockage of this channel may make the parasite more susceptible to known drugs," Klaerke said.
Researchers are now trying to figure out ways through which drugs can be made to target the shut down of these potassium channels, making the parasite more vulnerable to medicine or maybe vaccine at a later stage.
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