http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Earlier this year, researchers showed that they could cut the lives of disease-carrying mosquitoes in half by infecting them with a bacterium they took from fruit flies. Now, a new report in the December 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, suggests that their strategy might do one better: The Wolbachia bacteria also makes the mosquitoes more resistant to infection by viruses that are a growing threat to humans, including those responsible for dengue fever and Chikungunya. http://www.physorg.com/news180845514.html Medicine & Health Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:00:02 EST news180845514 How do one-celled parasites move from the salivary gland of a mosquito through a person's skin into red blood cells? What molecular mechanisms form the basis for this very important movement of the protozoa? A team of researchers headed by Dr. Friedrich Frischknecht, head of a research group at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University Hospital, observed the initial stage of the malaria parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes with new microscope techniques. http://www.physorg.com/news180784195.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:50:25 EST news180784195 Malaria parasites are able to disguise themselves to avoid the host's immune system, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news178819230.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:30:01 EST news178819230 Infecting mosquitoes with a bacterial parasite could help prevent the spread of lymphatic filariasis, one of the major neglected tropical diseases of the developing world, according to research published today in the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news173627112.html Biology Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:30:01 EST news173627112 Researchers in Malaysia have identified key laboratory and clinical features of an emerging new form of malaria infection. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, confirms the potentially deadly nature of the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news171745925.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:50:01 EST news171745925 (PhysOrg.com) -- A large international research team has decoded the genome of the notorious organism that triggered the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century and now threatens this season's tomato and potato crops across much of the US. http://www.physorg.com/news171720802.html Biology Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:13:51 EST news171720802 In a study to be published in the next issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, in Portugal, show that an anti-oxidant drug can protect against the development of deadly forms of malaria. These findings have direct implications for the treatment of this devastating disease, caused by the parasite Plasmodium, and still one of the main causes of death worldwide. http://www.physorg.com/news169744349.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:40:01 EST news169744349 Daytime temperature fluctuations greatly alter the incubation period of malaria parasites in mosquitoes and alter transmission rates of the disease. Consideration of these fluctuations reveals a more accurate picture of climate change's impact on malaria. http://www.physorg.com/news168538875.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:10:02 EST news168538875 In a daring experiment in Europe, scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a "vaccine" of live malaria parasites through their bites. The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later. http://www.physorg.com/news168110116.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:30:01 EST news168110116 (PhysOrg.com) -- Malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to artemisinin-based therapies, the first-line treatment for malaria, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. Resistance to the drugs makes them less effective and could eventually render them obsolete, putting millions of lives at risk. http://www.physorg.com/news168106555.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:16:53 EST news168106555 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have created a weakened strain of the malaria parasite that will be used as a live vaccine against the disease. The vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers from the US, Japan and Canada, will be trialled in humans from early next year. http://www.physorg.com/news168020667.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:25:13 EST news168020667 Researchers have found that the anti-malarial drug quinine can block a cell's ability to take up the essential amino acid tryptophan, a discovery that may explain many of the adverse side-effects associated with quinine. Once confirmed, these findings would suggest that dietary tryptophan supplements could be a simple and inexpensive way to improve the performance of this important drug. http://www.physorg.com/news165238691.html Chemistry Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:51:54 EST news165238691 Approximately 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria are diagnosed each year mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While medications to prevent and treat malaria do exist, the demand for new treatments is on the rise, in part, because malaria parasites have developed a resistance to existing medications. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered one way to stop malaria parasite growth, and this new finding could guide the development of new malaria treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news161870826.html Chemistry Mon, 18 May 2009 13:07:40 EST news161870826 Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed chemicals which kill the most deadly malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum - including those resistant to existing drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news159623309.html Chemistry Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:48:55 EST news159623309 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://www.physorg.com/news158505728.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:22:55 EST news158505728 (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://www.physorg.com/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://www.physorg.com/news157820314.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:00:04 EST news157820314 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://www.physorg.com/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://www.physorg.com/news157105558.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:27:02 EST news157105558 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://www.physorg.com/news155938785.html Biology Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:20:10 EST news155938785 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://www.physorg.com/news153931064.html Biology Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:38:10 EST news153931064 Professor Alan Cowman, Professor Brendan Crabb, Dr Paul Gilson and Dr Toby Sargeant are WEHI members of international research teams that have made significant discoveries about two deadly malaria parasites, Plasmodium knowlesi and Plasmodium vivax. http://www.physorg.com/news142687731.html Biology Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:28:51 EST news142687731 (PhysOrg.com) -- In work that could lead to new ways of detecting and treating malaria, MIT researchers have used two advanced microscopy techniques to show in unprecedented detail how the malaria parasite attacks red blood cells. http://www.physorg.com/news139579740.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:09:00 EST news139579740 Platelets - those tiny, unassuming cells that cause blood to clot and scabs to form when you cut yourself - play an important early role in promoting cerebral malaria, an often lethal complication that occurs mostly in children. Affecting as many as half a billion people in tropical and subtropical regions, malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases and the parasite responsible for it, Plasmodium, among the most studied pathogens of all time. Still, cerebral malaria, which results from a combination of blood vessel and immune system dysfunction, is not well understood. http://www.physorg.com/news138279336.html Biology Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:55:36 EST news138279336 Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust have identified a key mechanism that enables malaria-infected red blood cells to stick to the walls of blood vessels and avoid being destroyed by the body's immune system. The research, published today in the journal Cell, highlights an important potential new target for anti-malarial drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news134819897.html Biology Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:58:17 EST news134819897