Malaria kills between one and three million people, the vast majority of them young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
But an international team led by scientists at Trinity College Dublin has made a major breakthrough in identifying mechanisms that may contribute to the high mortality due to severe malaria in African children.
Over a one-year period they studied children under six years at a hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, who had severe forms of malaria.
The researchers took blood samples from the children and found that plasma levels of an adhesive protein called Von Willebrand Factor (VWF) were markedly higher.
VWF may play a critical role in tethering circulating blood cells to the vascular wall at sites of injury.
Dr James O’Donnell, Director of the Haemostasis Research Group at TCD and St James’s Hospital, Dublin, led the study.
Dr O’Donnell said: “This research sheds new light on the mechanisms underlying the interaction between the malaria parasite and its human host, and are not only of scientific interest, but may also open future new therapeutic opportunities for these children.”
