By Day GreenbergThe Daily Northwestern
Blood pressure medicine could be the new weapon in the fight against malaria, according to research from the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Dr. Kasturi Haldar and her research group found that propranolol – a kind of drug known as a beta-blocker used to treat high blood pressure – makes anti-malarial drugs dramatically more effective when the drugs are used together.
The group is now testing combinations of anti-malaria drugs and propranolol for mass distribution in the future.
Haldar’s group, which worked with the New York Blood Center for the project, wanted to address two problems with methods of malaria chemotherapy. The first problem is that the parasites quickly build up a resistance to drugs.
“We are running out of antibacterials,” Haldar said. “This is the same problem with parasites.”
Another problem, Haldar said, is that anti-malaria drugs only fight the parasite after it enters the blood. Haldar wanted to find a way to prevent symptoms of malaria.
Malaria is a disease that infects between 300 million and 500 million people a year, with 1,300 U.S. cases reported annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no vaccine to prevent it.
More than one million people die every year from the most dangerous of the four forms, caused by the one-celled protozoan parasites called Plasmodium falciparum. Haldar’s group studied these parasites and how they invade red blood cells.
Haldar’s group targeted a protein signaling system that the parasites use to enter red blood cells. Without access to this system, the parasites die. Researchers used propranolol to block the activity of G-proteins in red blood cells, blocking entry for about 70 to 80 percent of the parasites. The remaining parasites that enter the red blood cells are then killed within.
As a result, using propranolol greatly reduced the needed doses of anti-malarial drugs.
“The advance here is that the beta-blockers are existing drugs,” said Haldar. “We know a lot about them, and they are widely used.”
Haldar added that because propranolol is already known to be safe, the process of developing new combinations, including governmental approval, should be much faster than the 10 to 15 years needed to develop and approve a brand new molecule.
“It is not that common to be able to exploit and especially piggyback on the discovery of other drugs to treat (separate) diseases,” Haldar said.
The economic implications of this method also were a factor. By reducing the required doses of anti-malarial drugs, more patients can be treated at lower costs. This is especially significant because malaria is a disease that occurs commonly in areas of poverty and poor sanitation. It is most prevalent in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
“Since we now definitely know this pathway’s important, it makes it more exciting,” said Sean Murphy, a Feinberg resident, whose research on blood cells made Haldar’s breakthroughs possible. “Hopefully, maybe a year from now a few more labs will be using (this method).”
Feinberg software engineer Konstantinos Liolios, performed bioinformatics analysis for the project.
“It is very encouraging to see that the Western world is starting to become more sensitive to this devastating disease,” Liolios said. “The more we understand, the easier it will become to find a cure.”
Reach Day Greenberg at [email protected].
