'Breakthrough' in malaria fight

By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney

A sticky substance allows infected blood cells to stick to the blood vessels

Australian scientists have identified a potential treatment to combat malaria.

Researchers in Melbourne believe their discovery could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease.

The malaria parasite produces a glue-like substance which makes the cells it infects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through the body.

The researchers have shown removing a protein responsible for the glue can destroy its stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.

The malaria parasite produces the "glue" when it infects target red blood cells, enabling them to stick to the walls of blood vessels.

This stops them being pased through the spleen, where the parasites would usually be destroyed by the immune system.

Using genetic tests of the parasite, the Australian scientists identified eight proteins responsible for the production of the "glue".

Removing just one of these proteins stopped the cell from attaching itself to the walls of blood vessels.

Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said targeting the protein with drugs could be a key to fighting malaria.

"If we block the stickiness we essentially block the virulence or the capacity of the parasite to cause disease," he said.

Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. The disease kills more than a million people each year. Many of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.