The disease is spread by the Anopheles mosquito and affected approximately 249 million people worldwide in 2022.
Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG), in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, are collaborating with the We identified a link between malaria parasites developing resistance to malaria drugs.
Malaria, which will affect approximately 249 million people worldwide in 2022, is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the spread of the parasite to humans through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito.
Focusing specifically on an antimalarial drug known as artemisinin (ART), the researchers used a cellular process called transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) modification. This is a mechanism that allows cells to respond quickly to stress by modifying RNA molecules within the cell.
ART-based combination therapy is the first-line treatment for patients with uncomplicated malaria and, when used with a partner drug that kills remaining parasites, eliminates parasites within the first 3 days of treatment. Helps reduce the number.
However, Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of the malaria parasites that cause malaria, has developed partial resistance to ART, particularly in Southeast Asia and Africa.
was announced on natural biologyresearchers used advanced techniques and techniques developed by SMART to investigate the role of the epitranscriptome (RNA modifications within cells) in influencing drug resistance in malaria.
Comparison and post-isolation analysis of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant malaria parasites reveals that changes in tRNA modification in drug-resistant parasites are associated with both increased and decreased translation of specific parasite genes Became.
The researchers identified alterations in translation processes as a key underlying mechanism for increased drug resistance and also demonstrated how microbes and cancer cells can exploit the normal function of RNA modifications to cause the toxic effects of drugs and other therapeutic agents.
Peter Preiser, Co-Principal Investigator of SMART AMR and Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at NTU Singapore, commented: ”
