US researchers have identified natural compounds extracted from soil-dwelling bacteria that show promising efficacy in combating malaria parasites, including strains resistant to multiple drugs, in a discovery that opens the door to new therapeutic options to fight the disease.
The official website of the Scripps Research Institute reported two days ago that a research team from the Herbert Wertheim School of Biomedical Innovation & Technology identified these compounds after screening samples from a microbial collection comprising approximately 122,500 bacterial strains, collected over decades from 77 countries.
The researchers screened hundreds of samples for substances with anti-malarial properties and successfully isolated compounds named "Spiez," which belong to a rare chemical family known as "Spheriosporangium." They excluded compounds that showed toxicity to human cells during preliminary tests.
Laboratory experiments showed that one of these compounds eliminated approximately 99 percent of the "Plasmodium falciparum" parasite, which causes the most severe form of malaria, including strains resistant to multiple drugs. The compounds also exhibited activity against different stages of the parasite's life cycle within blood cells and the liver.
This discovery comes as malaria continues to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths annually worldwide, particularly in tropical regions, alongside increasing resistance of the parasite to some used drugs, thereby reinforcing the need to develop therapeutic compounds that work through different mechanisms.
Despite the encouraging results, these compounds are still in the laboratory testing phase and require further research to determine their mechanisms of action, pharmacological properties, and safety levels before proceeding to clinical trials on humans and potentially developing new malaria treatments.
Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Its parasite attacks the liver and red blood cells, causing fever, chills, sweating, and headaches, and can lead to serious health complications if left untreated.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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