New discovery about malaria

The immature malaria parasite is 100 times more resistant to the disease than mature parasites, according to The Australian.

That is the result of a study by a group of scientists led by Professor Leann Tilley and Dr. Nectarios Klonis from the University of Melbourne (Australia).

Extracts of wormwood used to treat malaria

The study was published in PNAS on February 19.

The team first discovered that malaria parasites in the early stages of development are less than 100 times more susceptible to malaria-treated drugs extracted from wormwood, compared to the parasites that were mature.

Malaria medicines extracted from wormwood have saved millions of people every year.

This finding is significant because the malaria parasite takes 2 days in each developmental cycle to mature, while the cure is only saved for a few hours.

The team hopes this finding will be useful when choosing the time to treat illness and developing new drugs that have a long-term effect to kill more malaria parasites and reduce drug-resistant parasites.