University of Hyderabad research team decoded a link for curbing malaria

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum transmitted among humans through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

A novel discovery led by a team of researchers from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) could be the next big step in finding a cure for malaria. The research team of researchers led by Prof. Mrinal Bhattacharya from the University of Hyderabad found a correlation between the fever that is induced by malaria and the antigenic variation of the malarial parasites.

The findings from this paper suggests that



targeting the parasitic proteins involved in the heat-shock response during fever is likely to restrict the antigenic variation in the parasites and thereby prevent malaria.  These findings are published in a reputed journal “Molecular Microbiology” by a team lead by Prof. Mrinal Kanti Bhattacharyya and his students, Ms. Wahida Tabassum, and Dr. Shalu Varunan (Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad) in collaboration with Dr. Sunanda Bhattacharyya (Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad).