{"id":43634,"date":"2022-09-20T02:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T06:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=43634"},"modified":"2022-09-20T11:43:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T15:43:05","slug":"uga-researcher-uncovers-humans-natural-weapon-against-malaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/uga-researcher-uncovers-humans-natural-weapon-against-malaria\/","title":{"rendered":"UGA researcher uncovers humans\u2019 natural weapon against malaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”]<\/p>\n

Samarchith \u201cSam\u201d Kurup grew up in India, and he\u2019s always been aware of the impact of malaria.<\/p>\n

In 2020 there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide and an estimated 627,000 deaths, according to a recently released World Health Organization Fact Sheet<\/a>. Eighty percent of the malaria-related deaths in Africa are children under the age of 5. The relapsing nature of the disease leads to educational and employment loss that has long-term economic impacts for both the individual as well as society.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalaria is huge global problem,\u201d said Kurup<\/a>, a member of UGA\u2019s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases<\/a>. \u201cAlmost half of the world\u2019s population is currently at risk of contracting malaria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurup began his training in veterinary medicine in India, where he became hooked on parasitology, then continued his studies at UGA. While pursuing his Ph.D. he worked in Rick Tarleton\u2019s lab, studying a parasitic disease that affects both animals and humans\u2014his first introduction to human immunology. He continued his training in immunology as a postdoctoral researcher in John Harty\u2019s lab at the University of Iowa.<\/p>\n

Combining parasitology with immunology prepared him to tackle malaria.<\/p>\n

Malaria is one of the most studied parasitic diseases, yet the Plasmodium <\/em>parasite that causes it keeps evading attempts to treat the infection in humans. This is largely due to its complex life cycle and the ability of the parasite to evolve drug resistance. In addition to life stages that occur in the mosquito, which transmits the Plasmodium<\/em> parasite to humans, there are two life stages in humans\u2014a short phase of initial development in the liver, followed by an infection of the blood cells that causes clinical disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of research has been focused on the blood stage in humans, as this is when a person is symptomatic,\u201d said Kurup, assistant professor of cellular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>. \u201cBut we now recognize that if we want to stop malaria, we need to stop it in its tracks in the liver before accessing the blood, and for that we need to understand the liver stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”43778″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” el_id=”text-container” el_class=”container”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”text-container”]Kurup has been awarded a five-year National Institutes of Health grant to study the natural immune response to the Plasmodium<\/em> parasite in liver cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liver stage is short and can be difficult to study in the laboratory,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are also practical and ethical limitations to studying the liver stage of malaria in humans. We are hoping to tease apart the basic principles of immune responses during this stage using the mouse model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurup\u2019s preliminary studies have shown that a group of signaling proteins called type 1 interferons play a role in the destruction of Plasmodium<\/em> parasites in the liver. His newly funded project will fill a gap in the malaria knowledge base by using a combination of in vitro study and in vivo experiments to determine the molecular processes that eliminate Plasmodium<\/em> parasites in liver cells. His group recently developed a transgenic parasite line that can be used to genetically alter its host cell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis strain is a game changer for our line of research because we can now determine how our liver cells would naturally eliminate the parasite, and maybe why it sometimes fails,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text el_class=”text-container”]<\/p>\n

In a study recently published in Cell Reports<\/a>, Kurup and colleagues used the genetically altered parasite to inhibit signaling by type 1 interferons and showed that this protein has a direct role in the control of malaria. Their study also revealed that other natural immune mechanisms may be active in controlling malaria in liver cells. The project funded by the new grant will delve further into these mechanisms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to taking us a step closer to the control and possible eradication of malaria, this project will expand our knowledge so that we can better reduce the burdens of this illness in our society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kurup is hopeful that uncovering how the human immune system naturally fights malaria in the liver stage will lead to an effective malaria vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really believe that bringing together our knowledge in parasitology and approaches in immunology is key to uncovering new information on this elusive life stage in malaria,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no better place to do this, considering the intellectual and material resources we have at our disposal at UGA and the CTEGD.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samarchith \u201cSam\u201d Kurup trained in parasitology and immunology in preparation for tackling the global problem of malaria. With support from a five-year National Institutes of Health grant, he\u2019ll study the natural immune response to the Plasmodium parasite in liver cells\u2014work that he hopes will lead to an effective malaria vaccine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":43636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"feature-single.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"post_medium":[691,314],"publications":[],"authors":[417],"photographers":[785],"video_credit":[],"takeaways":[],"class_list":["post-43634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infectious-disease","post_medium-feature","post_medium-read","authors-donna-huber","photographers-lauren-corcino","entry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"post_medium","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_medium?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"photographers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photographers?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"video_credit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/video_credit?post=43634"},{"taxonomy":"takeaways","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/takeaways?post=43634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}