ASM: Parasites sans frontiers

Anopheles mosquito having a blood meal. Photo courtesy Drew Berry, WEHI

Alan Cowman's group is at the forefront of research into the world's most deadly parasitic disease - malaria. His research has helped us understand how the malarial parasite evades both the human immune system and the lethal effects of anti-malarial drugs, and the mechanism by which it can invade and remodel the human red blood cell.

The fundamental biological findings published by his group over many years are now informing efforts to identify vaccine candidates targeted at the red blood cell invasion stage.

Cowman will present the Rubbo Oration at this year's ASM annual meeting and will concentrate on his group's latest work, which is attacking the problem from two different angles.

Malaria is caused by obligate intracellular parasites of the Plasmodium genus. Infection is characterised by recurrent fever, chills, headache, muscle ache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms, all of which can be very incapacitating.

Cowman's group works on Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the most severe form of malaria. Individuals infected with this species may develop complications such as brain disease (cerebral malaria), severe anemia and kidney failure, resulting in coma and death.

Cowman works directly on the P. falciparum parasite because it causes major disease and because there is no model organism. Many important questions about malaria are parasite-specific and cannot be addressed in other systems.

"That means it is very hard to work on," he says. "The parasite is difficult to genetically manipulate and we tend to have fewer tools available than in other areas of microbiology. So, it takes us a lot longer to progress.

"There are mouse models of malaria, but unfortunately they are not so relevant for the things we are looking at."

Fortunately, global efforts in prevention and research have been greatly increased recently due mainly to increased funding in particular from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

However, no vaccine is currently available to prevent malaria and groups like Cowman's are working very hard to reverse the situation.

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