A laboratory technician in a hospital testing blood samples for Malaria, Freetown, Sierra Leone.Credit: Matthew Oldfield Editorial Photography /Alamy Stock Photo
A cancer drug, currently in clinical trials, has shown the potential to protect, cure, and prevent transmission of malaria, a study in Science Translational Medicine shows.
The investigatory cancer drug, Sapanisertib, has the potential to block malaria transmission by killing the human malaria parasite in the liver. It can also perform the action in the human host red blood cells and, when the parasite divides sexually within the red blood cells to produce the transmissible forms of the parasite. The research was led by the Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with several international collaborators.
Malaria kills more than half a million people annually, most severely affecting children under five, pregnant women, and people with HIV. The team established how the drug kills the human malaria parasite by inhibiting multiple proteins called kinases in the malaria parasite. Kinases have been extensively investigated as therapeutic targets in many diseases because of their importance in cellular function. This makes them attractive for repurposing in other diseases, because in this case, more than one malaria parasite kinase can be targeted.
Kelly Chibale, professor, and director of H3D, says they are now busy investigating the efficacy of Sapanisertib, the corresponding dosing requirements and therapeutic window for malaria. The objective is to compare how Sapanisertib’s predicted dose for malaria differs to the maximum tolerated dose that is used for cancer.
