New pathway for malaria infection discovered

Cenix BioScience GmbH, a German specialist in advanced RNA interference-based research services, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a US RNAi therapeutics company, and the Lisbon, Portugal-based biomedical research center Instituto de Medicina Molecular, announced the publication of their collaborative study in Cell Host & Microbe (4, 271-282, 2008), describing the discovery and in vivo validation of scavenger receptor BI, a major regulator of cholesterol uptake by the liver, as a critical host factor for malaria infection. The new research findings are the first to describe a molecular link between cholesterol metabolism and malaria infection, and the new data could lead to new approaches for the treatment of malaria including use of RNAi therapeutics.

"Malaria represents a major global health concern accounting for approximately two million deaths per year. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms for the parasite's pathophysiology have remained poorly understood," said Maria Mota, director of the malaria research unit at the IMM. "Our current studies advance the potential for new therapies as we have discovered an important molecular link between the earliest stages of infection and a critical host gene," Dr Mota added.