Researchers Closers to Treatment That Halts Malaria
By Joe Stange, The Associated Press

St Louis, Missouri, USA - Researchers have taken a significant 
step toward an improved treatment for malaria, by far the world's 
most prevalent tropical disease. 
	Dr Daniel Goldberg, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 
at Washington University in St Louis, is developing a way to halt 
the spread of malaria inside an infected body.
	Internally, malaria spreads by setting up shop in red blood 
cells, then multiplying, bursting out into other red blood cells. 
Previously, Goldberg said, scientists thought the escape from the 
cell was just a one-step process. 
	But he and colleagues have identified two steps and a way 
to stop the second one thereby trapping the malaria inside the 
red blood cell. 
	Once inside a cell, the malaria parasite grows a protective 
sac, or membrane, around itself. 
	Inside the sac, the parasites multiply in the form of 
merozoites, or particles that burst out and infect other blood 
cells. But to infect other cells, the merozoites must not only 
exit the blood cell, they must also exit the sac. 
	First the whole sac comes out, then individual organisms 
come out, Goldberg said, almost as if the red blood cell gives 
birth to a new sac filled with malaria. 
	Using something called protease inhibitors, which recently 
have allowed great strides in containing HIV, Goldberg was able 
to prevent the infection from escaping the membrane. 
	It entombs them in their own chamber, so they can't get out 
to multiply, Goldberg said. The findings were published Dec 12 in 
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 
	Malaria kills more people than any communicable disease 
except tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization. 
The WHO estimates that more than 1 million people die each year, 
primarily African children. Overall, there are as many as 500 
million cases each year. 
	Goldberg said his research thus far has not found good, 
selective protease inhibitors. That's the next step, he said. If 
the right inhibitor can be developed, he said, we should be able 
to shut down the multiplication of the parasites and treat the 
disease. 
	It's premature to suppose how the treatment would be 
administered, Goldberg said, but he said an inexpensive, orally 
taken drug is desperately needed. 
	Malaria is only curable if treated immediately. There is no 
vaccine to prevent the mosquito-borne disease, but it can be 
suppressed by taking daily or weekly doses of anti-malarial 
medicines, which are also used in larger doses to treat the 
illness.
 	Two weeks ago, US President Bill Clinton signed a bill 
authorizing $50 million to prevent and treat malaria in the 
developing world over the next two years. The money would be 
spent on programs administered by the US Agency for International 
Development.