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+--- Thread: New pill cures malaria! (/thread-1400.html)
New pill cures malaria! - Magical Realist - Oct 7, 2015
"Researchers at Portland State University have discovered a pill that might cure malaria.
They tested it at various doses in mice until they found one that worked as a cure. The next step will be a clinical trial in humans.
"What's unique about our research is the potential to create a one-pill cure for malaria," said Kevin Reynolds, a chemistry professor and principle investigator. "That's huge because it's not an injection that needs to be kept refrigerated and you wouldn't need multiple doses."
Malaria kills more than half a million people a year worldwide and nearly 200 million are infected with the parasite, according to the World Health Organization. The Plasmodium parasite is spread through infected mosquitos.
The professors' remedy is based on a compound that comes from natural red pigment in soil bacteria. Reynolds said the research was inspired by a paper in the 1970s that indicated that the pigment could be used to treat malaria. But no one followed up on it.
"Perhaps they didn't have the know-how or technology to make the structural changes necessary to make it more effective," Reynolds said in a statement."====http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2015/10/portland_state_discovers_possi.html
RE: New pill cures malaria! - C C - Oct 10, 2015
Which would seem to finally rob evolution's adaptive response to malaria (sickle cell disease) of its advantageous status -- albeit the latter caught between the rock and a hard-place of undesirable / desirable. If "the pill" remedies malaria in those applicable areas, then time to ramp-up any gene therapy cures for SCD.