In the course of the second phase of clinical trials, a combination based on the mediation of IMATINIBA has shown an effectiveness of 100 percent in the fight against malaria. The results of the study are published in Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Recently, one of the options for Plasmodium Falciparum – a parasite, which causes the most dangerous form of malaria with the highest mortality rate, has gained resistance to medicines and spread widely in Southeast Asia. It turned out that in a number of districts up to 80 percent of malaria parasites were resistant to drugs.
Researchers from Italy and the United States found that the Imatinib preparation developed by Novartis to combat chronic myeloid leukemia and other types of blood cancer is capable of blocking the spread of the parasite in blood cell cultures. Immediately after this discovery began clinical trials of the drug in humans in the Vietnamese Province of Kuangchi. In the course of the second phase, the effectiveness of two therapies was compared – with the help of standard antimalarial preparations (pinerauclavin and dihydroarthtemin) and the combination of Imatinib with them. “We have not experienced Imatinib separately, since patients suffering from potentially fatal disease with the help of uneficable therapy would be unethical,” said the sector of the research team, Professor of the University of Perdy Philipp Low.
For two days, the combination with Imatinib killed 90 percent of parasites in the body, and for three – 100. Patients who received the drug also twice the faster ceased to feel pain. Researchers note that, probably, the success of Imatinib is due to the fact that the purpose of the drug is not the malarious parasite itself, and the erythrocytes that he infects uses for reproduction and then destroys. “Since our goal is the enzyme of the Red Blood Taurus, the parasite does not have the opportunity to gain sustainability. He simply cannot make the proteins in our red blood cells,” – emphasizes Low.