Penn study takes on malaria

Every year, approximately 300 million people are affected by malaria worldwide — and for 1 to 2 million, the results are fatal. Thanks to a recent study by the Perelman School of Medicine, that number may soon be going down.

A study led by Doron Greenbaum, assistant professor of Pharmacology in the Medical School, examined the enzymes used by malaria-bearing parasites to break down hemoglobin once inside the host’s infected red blood cell.

“If you can prevent the parasite from breaking down hemoglobin, you can starve it” and keep the malaria from spreading, Biology professor David Roos said. Roos’ lab — which has done significant research related to the molecular genetics of malaria — collaborated with Greenbaum’s on the study.

According to Roos, Greenbaum’s study used a chemical compound resembling a protein to bind with a type of enzyme known as a protease. Since the compound was not degraded by the protease, it enabled the researchers to identify the parasite’s protease — which could then be recognized by an antibody and removed from the cell.

“The goal of the paper wasn’t to find new drugs [for malaria treatment], but rather to characterize potential new drug targets in the parasite,” said Michael Harbut, a doctoral student involved in Greenbaum’s research.

“It’s unlikely to be viewed as a transformative study, but it’s important in that it … identified individual [proteases] that the parasite needs, that don’t have obvious counterparts in humans,” Roos said. According to Harbut, these proteases are now a “validated target for development” that drug companies can utilize when creating new malaria treatments.

The study has important implications for malaria victims all over the world — Anthropology professor Janet Monge knows this first-hand.

During a research trip in Kenya in 2002 — a year with especially high levels of mosquito-related malaria infections — Monge contracted the disease despite taking extensive precautionary measures and suffered extreme symptoms of fever and malaise. She was diagnosed and treated in a local clinic in Kenya, as she was advised that “if you’re looking for medical attention [for malaria], it’s best to go where the doctors see it more often.”

In Kenya, Monge was given an extremely dangerous and toxic oral drug for malaria therapy called Halfan, which she continued to self-medicate with upon returning to the United States. She has since made a full recovery, but felt the symptoms of malaria about six months afterward.

Monge believes that developing an effective treatment for malaria will “change the developing world. If you’ve been in places where people are suffering the catastrophic effects of malaria, you know that it’s key to work on the problem.”

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