100-year-old mystery of how malaria affects brain solved by Indian scientists-led team; read details PTI
New Delhi: Using brain imaging techniques, scientists, including those from The Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in Odisha, have unravelled the century old mystery of how malaria affects the brain, an advance which reveals how the deadly disease causes different outcomes in adults and children.
According to the researchers, cerebral malaria is a severe, life-threatening complication of infection with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that can infect humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes.
While a fifth of people with this form of the disease die despite treatment, and neurocognitive after-effects are common in survivors, they said the effects of malaria on the brain have puzzled scientists for the last 100 years.
Team co-led by Indian scientists solve 100-year-old mystery of how malaria affects brain
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Scientists have shown for the first time that cerebral malaria causes death in adults by triggering oxygen-deprivation in the brain, in new research published in
Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Already available treatments, such as hypothermia, may slow brain oxygen-deprivation in cerebral malaria patients. The researchers say these neuronal survival-enhancing approaches could soon be trialled in adults with cerebral malaria, alongside existing anti-malarial treatments, to hopefully improve survival.
In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria worldwide. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 409,000 in 2019. Cerebral malaria is a severe, life-threatening complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection, the most widespread and lethal of the five malaria parasites that can infect humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. Up to 20% of people with cerebral malaria die despite anti-malarial treatment, and neurocognitive after-effects are comm
Updated Dec 16, 2020 | 17:13 IST
They said the findings were corroborated by significantly elevated levels of specific molecules in the blood which indicate oxygen-deprivation. 100-year-old mystery of how malaria affects brain solved by team co-led by Indian scientists | Photo Credit: iStock Images
New Delhi: Using brain imaging techniques, scientists, including those from The Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in Odisha, have unravelled the century old mystery of how malaria affects the brain, an advance which reveals how the deadly disease causes different outcomes in adults and children.
According to the researchers, cerebral malaria is a severe, life-threatening complication of infection with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that can infect humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes.