A mouse study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany showed the potential for antibiotics to be used as an inoculation for malaria. Mice were injected with antibiotics and infectious sporozoites (transmissible infectious stage of malaria). The sporozites entered the liver and replicated forming merozoites (disease stage of malaria) as normally occurs in malaria, however the red blood cells did not become infected as they normally would and secondary symptoms such as fever were not seen. Although successful in mice with the proof of concept demonstrated, it is still a bit early and optimistic for the same technique to be successful in humans. Significant more time and testing would be required in order to develop a polyphasic antibiotic administration technique that would be successful in humans. However, the researchers on the project are optimistic of the possibility of a breakthrough that could lead to an injection-free malaria inoculation.
Sources:
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
EurekAlert
Flickr (pic)
No comments:
Post a Comment