Study of an old remedy against malaria

2003/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

A Chinese herb faces the malaria parasite, so, because the parasite has become resistant to many drugs, in Southeast Asia the extract of this plant is widely used. Now scientists have clarified the functioning of the motor substance.

The plant is the Ring of Artemisia, a herb of the genus of asensive grass. Its extract, artemisinin, is a traditional remedy against malaria in China. Knowing that in the structure of the molecule of this product there is a peroxide bridge, doctors did not know how it attacked the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Now, some biochemists have discovered that PfATP6 is a protein inhibitor, one of the proteins that the parasite uses to produce energy. Artemisinin resembles another mammalian inhibitor, and from that similarity they have managed to know its function.