New Drug to Treat Malaria

Dr Teresa Tiffert, an expert on the physiology of human red blood cells, at work in the laboratory.

A potential new way to treat the deadly disease malaria has been discovered by scientists in Cambridge University's Department of Physiology.

In research supported by The Wellcome Trust and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (Vol.97, No.1, pp.331-336), Dr Teresa Tiffert and colleagues have found that a drug called clotrimazole, which has long been used to treat fungal infections in humans, also has a strong anti-malarial effect.

Test-tube trials showed that the drug kills a strain of the parasite Plasmodiuim falciparum that causes a particularly severe form of malaria in humans. The concentrations of the drug used to kill the parasite were similar to those known to be attained in human blood after taking the drug orally.

Malaria currently represents a major public health concern worldwide, with between 1.5 and 2.7 million people dying from it each year. The number of malaria cases is rising, and the Plasmodiuim falciparum parasite is growing increasingly resistant to currently available drugs.

Because clotrimazole is already known to be clinically safe, and free of resistance reactions by fungi, it holds much promise as an effective way to combat the disease.

Dr Tiffert said the team is currently seeking funding to continue its research and also to initiate a pilot clinical trial of clotrimazole in Iquitos, Peru, where malaria caused by drug-resistant parasites has become a major public health concern.

Further information:
Dr Teresa Tiffert. Tel: 44-1223-333830; e-mail: jtt1000@cus.cam.ac.uk
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