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An antidrug malaria pump?


An antidrug malaria pump?

The drug resistance of malaria-causing parasites may be due to a highly effective "sump pump' that can expel a common antimalaria medication, scientists reported last week. But, say the scientists, this mechanism can be inhibited by other drugs that could be added to the therapy regimen for malaria.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis “Washington University” redirects here. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation).
Washington University in St. Louis is a private, coeducational, research university located in St. Louis, Missouri.
 and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research This article is about the U.S. Army medical research institute (not the hospital). Otherwise, see Walter Reed (disambiguation).

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S.
 in Washington, D.C., say that Plasmodium falciparum Plasmodium fal·cip·a·rum
n.
A protozoan that causes falciparum malaria.
 parasites resistant to the commonly used drug choloroquine apparently release the drug 40 to 50 times more rapidly than do P. falciparum killed by chloroquine chloroquine /chlo·ro·quine/ (klor´o-kwin) an antiamebic and anti-inflammatory used in the treatment of malaria, giardiasis, extraintestinal amebiasis, lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis; used also as the hydrochloride and . The scientists report in the Nov. 27 SCIENCE that this "rapid efflux efflux Medtalk That which flows outward  phenomenon' can be found in drug-resistant malarial parasites from Africa, South America and Asia. But by adding other drugs--including two that block the entry of calcium into cells--to P. falciparum cultures, the researchers were able to significantly slow chloroquine release. They say that results suggest this choloroquine resistance may be similar to multidrug resistance in mammalian cells. This similarity was noted previously by researchers studying the response of resistant P. falciparum to the anticancer drug verapamil verapamil /ve·rap·a·mil/ (ve-rap´ah-mil) a calcium channel blocker that dilates coronary arteries and decreases myocardial oxygen demand, used as the hydrochloride salt in the treatment of angina pectoris and of hypertension and the  (SN: 3/7/87, p.148).

Other researchers are working on vaccines against P. falciparum (SN: 3/21/87, p.181), but results from the first clinical trials of an antimalaria vaccine have been disappointing. Made by the U.S. Army, the potential vaccine protected only one of the six subjects immunized and then exposed to the parasite, according to an Army spokesman.
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Copyright 1987, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:research on drug resistance of malaria-causing parasites
Publication:Science News
Date:Dec 5, 1987
Words:250
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