http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (AP) -- A $225 million fund to provide low-price anti-malaria medicine around the world was launched in the Norwegian capital Friday to fight a disease that kills 2,000 children a day. http://phys.org/news159342410.html Medicine & Health Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:48:53 EST news159342410 In research published in PLoS Medicine, Cally Roper of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and colleagues use genetic analyses to trace the emergence and dispersal of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Africa. http://phys.org/news158911753.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:09:32 EST news158911753 (AP) -- Treating African children at home for malaria doesn't help in cities because most fevers aren't actually caused by malaria, a new study said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news158908029.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:07:33 EST news158908029 In a genetic leap that could help fast track vaccine and drug development to prevent or tame serious global diseases, DMS researchers have discovered how to destroy a key DNA pathway in a wily and widespread human parasite. The feat surmounts a major hurdle for targeting genes in Toxoplasma gondii, an infection model whose close relatives are responsible for diseases that include malaria and severe diarrhea. http://phys.org/news158862480.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:30:22 EST news158862480 For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley, Ph.D., has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week's Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex. http://phys.org/news158505728.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:22:55 EST news158505728 Killing just the older mosquitoes would be a more sustainable way of controlling malaria, according to entomologists who add that the approach may lead to evolution-proof insecticides that never become obsolete. http://phys.org/news158303146.html Biology Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:06:17 EST news158303146 A new analytical technique is helping scientists learn how organisms as simple as seaweed can mount complex chemical defenses to protect themselves from microbial threats such as fungus. Known as desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS), the technique for the first time allows researchers to study unique chemical activity taking place on the surfaces of these organisms. http://phys.org/news158259302.html Chemistry Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:55:27 EST news158259302 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause. The study, appearing this week online in Science, was led by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Penn School of Medicine. http://phys.org/news158050237.html Biology Sat, 04 Apr 2009 07:51:19 EST news158050237 (PhysOrg.com) -- More than one million people die from malaria every year - most of them in the world's poorest areas. While it's no surprise to find Cambridge scholars at the forefront of the battle against the disease, crucial research is underway not just in subjects like biochemistry and physiology, but in the unlikely setting of the Department of Engineering. http://phys.org/news157820314.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:00:04 EST news157820314 (PhysOrg.com) -- The spread of malaria, one of the world's most prevalent insect-borne diseases and a leading killer of children, may have more to do with landscape than precipitation as the world warms, according to a new study. http://phys.org/news157739485.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:32:15 EST news157739485 Targeting mosquito larval populations may be an effective intervention to help control malaria in urban situations, a study published today suggests. The research, conducted in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, has re-opened the debate on whether malaria can be controlled with larvicides, insecticides which kill mosquitoes in their water-borne larval stages of development. http://phys.org/news157732649.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:38:09 EST news157732649 Using data from nearly 8000 local surveys of malaria parasite infection rates, an international team of researchers has built a global map showing the proportion of the population infected with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum at locations throughout the globe. Published in this week's PLoS Medicine, the map shows that areas where a high proportion of residents are infected are common - but by no means uniform - in Africa, while lower prevalence levels are found in the Americas and Central and Southeast Asia, although pockets of intermediate and high transmission remain in some parts of Asia. http://phys.org/news157105558.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:27:02 EST news157105558 Researchers have identified a novel pathway that may contribute to the high mortality associated with severe malaria in sub-Saharan African children. The study, published March 20 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, reports that severe Plasmodium falciparum infection results in disruption of the endothelium, causing release of ultra-large von Willebrand factor (VWF) protein. Together with reduced levels of VWF-specific cleaving enzyme ADAMTS13, this finding may contribute to our knowledge of the pathophysiology of malaria. http://phys.org/news156783415.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:57:48 EST news156783415 (PhysOrg.com) -- In an effort to prevent the spread of malaria, scientists have built a laser that shoots and kills mosquitoes. Malaria, which is caused by a parasite and transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 1 million people every year. http://phys.org/news156423566.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:00:00 EST news156423566 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have for the first time identified a molecular pathway that triggers an immune response in multiple mosquito species capable of stopping the development of Plasmodium falciparum-the parasite that causes malaria in humans. http://phys.org/news156160228.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:51:04 EST news156160228 Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences researchers have discovered a new mechanism the malaria parasite uses to enter human red blood cells, which could lead to the development of a vaccine cocktail to fight the mosquito-borne disease. http://phys.org/news155938785.html Biology Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:20:10 EST news155938785 In addition to providing a simple and much less expensive means of making artemisinin, the most powerful anti-malaria drug in use today, synthetic biology can also help to extend the effectiveness of this drug. Fermenting artemisinin via engineered microbes, such as yeast, can be done at far lower costs than extracting the drug from Artemsisia annua, the sweet wormwood tree, making microbial-based artemisinin a much cheaper but equally effective treatment. Restricting access to this technology to responsible manufacturers who will bundle artemisinin as part of an anti-malarial drug "cocktail" rather than selling it as a monotherapy should delay or even prevent malaria parasites from developing resistance. Recently, there have been reports of malaria parasites in West Africa showing some signs of resistance to artemisinin. http://phys.org/news155588531.html Biology Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:02:34 EST news155588531 A doctoral thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that it is possible to describe and quantify the relationships between dose, concentration and effectiveness of several drugs against HIV/AIDS and malaria. The method may allow improved treatment and fewer undesired effects for patients with these diseases. http://phys.org/news155556565.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:10:30 EST news155556565 (PhysOrg.com) -- The means by which most deadly malaria parasites are detected and killed by the mosquitoes that carry them is revealed for the first time in research published today in Science Express. The discovery could help researchers find a way to block transmission of the disease from mosquitoes to humans. http://phys.org/news155485175.html Biology Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:20:06 EST news155485175 Two highly lethal viruses that have emerged in recent outbreaks are susceptible to chloroquine, an established drug used to prevent and treat malaria, according to a new basic science study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Journal of Virology. Due to the study's significance, it was published yesterday, online, in advance of the first April print issue. http://phys.org/news155480197.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:57:37 EST news155480197 A team of researchers from Princeton University and the Drexel University College of Medicine has found that the parasite that causes malaria breaks down an important amino acid in its quest to adapt and thrive within the human body. By depleting this substance called arginine, the parasite may trigger a more critical and deadlier phase of the disease. http://phys.org/news154265671.html Biology Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:35:25 EST news154265671 Temperature is an important factor in the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, but researchers who look at average monthly or annual temperatures are not seeing the whole picture. Global climate change will affect daily temperature variations, which can have a more pronounced effect on parasite development, according to a Penn State entomologist. http://phys.org/news153931064.html Biology Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:38:10 EST news153931064 Research led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has identified the genetic basis for resistance to commonly-used insecticides in one of the major malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa. http://phys.org/news152994268.html Biology Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:25:03 EST news152994268 Research led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has identified the genetic basis for resistance to commonly-used insecticides in one of the major malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa. http://phys.org/news152961773.html Biology Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:23:33 EST news152961773 A team of Monash University researchers led by Professor James Whisstock has made a major breakthrough in the international fight against malaria, which claims the life of a child across the world every 30 seconds. http://phys.org/news152879072.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:38:50 EST news152879072 Singapore scientists report that they have discovered a novel method of immunization that completely eliminates the malaria parasites in both stages of the parasite's development. http://phys.org/news152806765.html Biology Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:19:43 EST news152806765 Researchers seeking ways to defeat malaria have found a way to get help from the parasite that causes the disease. http://phys.org/news152470479.html Biology Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:55:01 EST news152470479 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a prototype malaria test printed on a disposable Mylar card that could easily slip into your wallet and still work when you took it out, even months later. http://phys.org/news151776372.html Chemistry Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:06:36 EST news151776372 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) have identified the molecular components that enable the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium to infect the salivary glands of the Anopheles mosquito—a critical stage for spreading malaria to humans. According to the researchers, saglin, a mosquito salivary protein, is a receptor for the Plasmodium protein Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein (TRAP). The two proteins bind together to allow invasion of the salivary gland by Plasmodium sporozoites, which can be transmitted to a human when bitten by an infected mosquito. The findings are published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://phys.org/news151309041.html Biology Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:17:21 EST news151309041 Looking at the retina in the eyes of patients with cerebral malaria has provided scientists with a vital insight into why malaria infection in the brain is so deadly. In a study funded by the Wellcome Trust and Fight for Sight and published today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers in Malawi have shown for the first time in patients that the build-up of infected blood cells in the narrow blood vessels of the brain leads to a potentially lethal lack of oxygen to the brain. http://phys.org/news151222194.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:09:54 EST news151222194