New hope for malaria treatment

Researchers have developed a compound that blocks the action of a key 'gatekeeper' enzyme essential for malaria parasite survival.

The researchers have revealed that the compound, called WEHI-916, is the first step toward a new class of antimalarial drugs that could cure and prevent malaria infections caused by all species of the parasite, including those resistant to existing drugs.

Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute developed WEHI-916 to block the critical malaria enzyme Plasmepsin V.

Justin Boddey said that the research team used WEHI-916 to prove the importance of Plasmepsin V to malaria parasite survival and they have developed a novel compound to target Plasmepsin V and showed for the first time that the enzyme is essential for survival of the malaria parasite.

Boddey added that the Plasmodium parasite needs to produce and deliver over 300 different proteins to the red blood cell to survive in the body and hide from the host's immune system and instead of targeting individual proteins and they can block Plasmepsin V and prevent all of those proteins from leaving the parasite.

The study was published in PLOS Biology.