Date: March 22, 2016
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
An international team of scientists used an amplification technique to sequence the genomes of two divergent Plasmodium malaria species from miniscule volumes of chimpanzee blood to find clues about the evolution and pathogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite that affects people. Understanding the origins of emerging diseases -- and more established disease agents -- is critical to gauge future human infection risks and find new treatment and prevention approaches.
Understanding the origins of emerging diseases -- as well as more established disease agents -- is critical to gauge future human infection risks and find new treatment and prevention approaches. This holds true for malaria, which kills more than 500,000 people a year. Symptoms, including severe anemia, pregnancy-associated malaria, and cerebral malaria, have been linked to the parasite's ability to cause infected red blood cells to bind to the inner lining of blood vessels.
An international team led by Beatrice Hahn, MD, a professor of Medicine and Microbiology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and MD/PhD student Sesh Sundararaman, used a selective amplification technique to sequence the genomes of two divergent Plasmodium species, Plasmodium reichenowi and Plasmodium gaboni, from miniscule volumes of chimpanzee blood to find clues about the evolution and pathogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite that affects people. Their findings appear this week in Nature Communications.
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