UCT PUBLISHES DETAILS
Malaria research may help develop new drugs
The new information may help other scientists in their quest to find new and better antimalaria drugs
Scientists at the University of Cape Town (UCT) have published details of how the potential antimalaria drug MMV048 works, shedding light on how it targets the deadly malaria-causing parasite. The information may help other scientists in their quest to find new and better antimalaria drugs. Despite advances in controlling the mosquitoes that transmit malaria, the parasite infected 214-million people worldwide and caused 438,000 deaths in 2015, according to the World Health Organisation. About 90% of those deaths occurred in Africa. The quest for new drugs is urgent, as resistance to the existing arsenal of antimalaria drugs is rapidly emerging, even against the most effective artemesinin-based therapies. "Resistance is only a matter of time," said Kelly Chibale, co-author of a paper published on Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, describing the mechanism MMV048 uses to kill the malaria parasite. Chibale is director of UCT’s Drug Development and Discovery Centre, which anno...
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