The anticancer human mTOR inhibitor sapanisertib potently inhibits multiple Plasmodium kinases and life cycle stages

Cancer drug could fight malaria

28 February 2023

An experimental anti-cancer drug is promising for combatting malaria.

After two decades of decline, deaths due to malaria are on the rebound. One reason for this is that the single-celled parasite that causes malaria is becoming increasingly resistant to anti-malarial drugs. This is spurring an urgent search for alternatives.

Now, a team led by researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa has shown that sapanisertib, an anti-cancer drug currently undergoing clinical trials, may be useful for protecting against and treating malaria.

As well as blocking transmission of parasites from mosquitos, sapanisertib was effective against two life stages of the malaria parasite: when it multiples in the liver and the asexual stage in the host’s red blood cells.

Originally designed to inhibit a protein known as a kinase involved in various cancers, the drug also inhibits at least two kinases in the malaria parasite.

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References

1. Science Translational Medicine 14, eabo7219 (2022). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abo7219