University maps drug-resistant malaria

A US university is conducting research into why malaria is resistant to certain types of drugs.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana are studying the genetic factors that influence the disease.

The malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum is driven by genes expressed at different times and different levels.

By looking at the genetic "architecture" of drug responses, university biologist Michael Ferdig hopes to shed light on drug-resistance.

The World Health Organization recommends artemisim combined therapy to treat malaria, which is not available in all parts of the world.

Some areas still reply on antimalarial drug chloroquine, which some strains of malaria are resistant to.

More than a million people die of malaria globally each year, mostly pregnant women, children and older people, making further research into drug resistance essential.

By studying the genetics of the disease, the biologist hopes to map new approaches to drug resistant malaria genes.

The research from the university has appeared in the journal PLoS Biology.

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