Yourwellness Magazine Explores Targets for Malaria Treatments
(PRWEB UK) 1 July 2013 -- According to a new study, published May 27th in the journal Nature, scientists have discovered that mutating a smell-related gene in mosquitoes hinders their ability to sniff out humans from other warm-blooded prey. Researchers said the findings clearly show how important scent is to mosquito "hunting preferences." They added that they hope the results will pave the way to better weapons against the mosquitoes that transmit diseases including malaria and dengue fever. (http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/Article/676842/mosquitoes-with-altered-gene-cant-sniff-people-out)
Leslie Vosshall, a professor at Rockefeller University, in New York City, and senior researcher on the study, commented that mosquitoes are responsible for spreading diseases such as malaria – which alone killed close to 700,000 people worldwide in 2010. She noted that mosquitoes are attracted by other factors – like body heat and the carbon dioxide people exhale – but “none of those factors would be as important as smell.” She added that the insect repellent DEET blocks the “smell pathway” of humans. (http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/Article/676842/mosquitoes-with-altered-gene-cant-sniff-people-out)
With this in mind, Yourwellness Magazine reported on a potential new treatment for malaria. According to Yourwellness Magazine, “Malaria is one of those buzzword diseases, famous for being extremely dangerous. It is one of the most devastating infectious diseases in the world, killing over a million people every year. It also newly infects a shocking 250 million individuals per year. Many of those people are infected when they are bitten by mosquitoes carrying the Plasmodium parasite.”
Yourwellness Magazine reported that the study, which was published in the online journal Structure, used a technique called electron microscopy to study how the enzymes of the malaria parasite Plasmodium synthesise Vitamin B6. Yourwellness Magazine explained that the biochemical process of making vitamin B6 involves an enzyme complex of 24 protein subunits. The researchers used electron microscopy to look at the 3D crystal structure of the assembly from individual proteins, which serves as a good starting point for developing specific inhibitors that could target active enzyme sites, which would allow new treatments to be created.
To find out more, visit the gateway to living well at http://www.yourwellness.com, or read the latest issue online at http://latestissue.yourwellness.com.
Michael Kitt, Yourwellness Publishing Ltd, http://www.yourwellness.com, 0208 588 9553, [email protected]
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