Duke Scientists ID Cancer Drugs As Potential Malaria Treatment

Scientists from Duke University reported that they have identified over 30 compounds, some of which are undergoing trials as anti-cancer drugs, which could hold potential as anti-malaria treatments.

Led by Emily Derbyshire, assistant professor at Duke University, the team recognized 31 enzyme-blocking molecules known as protein kinase inhibitors that inhibit malaria before its symptoms start to show. Several of these are in development to treat leukemia and myeloma, among other cancers.

The single-celled parasite called Plasmodium causes malaria, which is spread from person to person through mosquito bites. The parasites are carried in the mosquito’s saliva. Once infected mosquitoes bite a person, the parasites make their way into a person’s liver where they quietly grow and multiply. Once they reach thousands, the new parasites invade red blood cells, upon which malaria’s characteristic symptoms begin to show. These include fevers, chills, headaches, and sweats.

Professor Derbyshire and her team’s work are different from other anti-malarial treatment efforts because they focus on stopping the disease while it is in incubation stage in the liver instead of at a later stage. An obvious advantage is that the team’s approach targets the parasites before they have a chance to multiply, which means there are fewer parasites to target.

Working with John Clardy of Harvard Medical School, Professor Derbyshire evaluated 1,358 compounds to see if they are able to inhibit the parasites in the liver in both test tubes and mice. The scientists isolated the 31 compounds that were able to keep the parasites in check without harming the host. The same compounds that halted the parasites’ spread in the liver were found to be also effective in the stage where the parasites have invaded the blood.

By concentrating on developing treatments that work early, the team hopes to halt malaria by limiting its time to spread. They also hope to target drug-resistant strains before these set in and cause symptoms to manifest in a patient.

The scientists’ work is set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal ChemBioChem.

In a similar study published earlier this month, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) at San Francisco General Hospital and collaborators in Uganda also identified a year-round preventive treatment approach that could reduce malaria risk in children instead of only during seasons when mosquitoes are prevalent.