What is it about?
The parasite responsible for malaria goes through various stages inside the mosquito before it can infect humans. We’ve discovered a new gene called aquaporin 2 (AQP2), which is crucial for the parasite's transformation inside the mosquito enabling it to infect people. When we remove this gene, we impede this essential transformation step.
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Photo by Егор Камелев on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Malaria is a major global health concern and current methods are struggling to control it. This article offers a potential target for future interventions to halt the spread of the disease. What's particularly promising is that this gene, which codes for a channel responsible for transporting water and other soluble substances across cell membranes, appears to be exclusive to malaria parasites, making it an ideal candidate for the development of highly specific and targeted drugs.
Perspectives
We hope this article serves as a testament to the exciting world of malaria transmission research, unearthing novel biological insights and uncovering potential breakthroughs that hold the promise of saving human lives in the future.
Professor George Christophides
Imperial College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Intracellular
Plasmodium
aquaporin 2 is important for sporozoite production in the mosquito vector and malaria transmission, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, October 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304339120.
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