Toward a better drug against malaria
Friday, June 6, 2014 - 02:32
in Biology & Nature
Structural biologists explain on the molecular level, how the drug atovaquone acts on the pathogen of malaria. Malaria is one of the most dangerous tropical diseases in the world. Anopheles mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium species -- unicellular parasites -- transmit the disease by biting. Atovaquone blocks a protein of the respiratory chain in the mitochondria, the power plants of the cell, thus killing off the parasites. However, the pathogen is susceptible to mutations so that drug resistant strains are arising and spreading.