Seaweed a Source of Potential Antimalarial Drug

This article is about the discovery of a seaweed found in Fiji that is suspected to have the capability of killing the malarial parasite. Currently, we have developed multiple drugs aimed at killing this parasite which have proved effective, but the problem is it just finds a way to adapt to the drug every few years. In the article it states that there has already been signs of resistance of the most current antimalarial drug in Cambodia. However, with this new compound found in this red alga, there appears to be hope. It's discovery first originated back in 2005 by Julia Kubanek, a chemical ecologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, during her search for how marine plants and animals defend against infection bacteria of the sea. Four years later, the biomedical screening revealed that a compound classified as a bromophycolide had strong antimalarial properties. Then two days ago, Kubanek claimed to have determined the underlying mechanism to this compounds ability to kill the malarial parasite. Apparently, the way this parasite works is by binding to the body's oxygen-carrying molecules, meaning hemoglobin. Usually, during the process the parasite crystallizes the heme because it is toxic and would otherwise kill the parasite. Somehow though, this bromophycolide disrupts the parasites ability to do this and ultimately leads to its death. More tests will continue to be run on mice to determine whether this process is effective but overall I just found this article to be extremely interesting. I mean I've heard about stuff like this but this is really the first time I've actually read about it. I also choose this article because we just learned a lot about hemoglobin in lecture 1 day ago. Hope you enjoy reading the article as much as I did.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/02/seaweed-a-source-of-potential.html?ref=hp