A slight genetic rearrangement can save lives from Malaria

A revolutionary discovery by the researchers have proved that the most severe form of malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum,is linked with natural variation in human red blood cell genes.

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and their collaborators have recognized a genetic rearrangement of red blood cell‘glycophorin’ receptors that convokes a 40% reduced risk from severe malaria. This unravels new opportunities of research for malarial therapeutics.The study shows that large structural variations in human glycophorin genes, which are unusually common in Africa, are protective against this particularly fatal malarial disease caused by Plasmodium parasites.

According to the 2015 statistics, more than 200 million people a year are infected with malaria and the disease caused the deaths of nearly half a million people worldwide. The most widespread malarial parasite in Africa is Plasmodium falciparum; it is also the most dangeroustransmitted by mosquitoes.

The human red blood cells get infected by the Plasmodium parasites and then the parasite gainsan entry into the system via receptors on the cell surface. Earlier studies on natural resistance to malaria had implicated a section of human genome near to a bunch of receptor genes. These receptors ─glycophorins─lay on the surface of red blood cells and are amongst many receptors that bind the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. However, the recent study shows that they could be involved in protection against malaria.

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A slight genetic rearrangement can save lives from Malaria