Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Severe forms of malaria such as Plasmodium falciparum may be deadly even after treatment with current parasite-killing drugs. This is due to persistent cyto-adhesion of infected erythrocytes even though existing parasites within the red blood cells are dead. As vaccines for malaria have proved less than moderately effective, and to treat these severe cases of P. falciparum malaria, new avenues are urgently needed. Latest estimates indicate that more than 500 million cases of malaria and more than 400,000 deaths are reported worldwide each year. Anti-adhesion drugs may hold the key to significantly improving survival rates.
Using venom from the Conus nux, a species of sea snail, a first-of-its-kind study from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine in collaboration with FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and the Chemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States Department of Commerce, suggests that these conotoxins could potentially treat malaria. The study provides important leads toward the development of novel and cost-effective anti-adhesion or blockade-therapy pharmaceuticals aimed at counteracting the pathology of severe malaria.
Results, published in the Journal of Proteomics , expand the pharmacological reach of conotoxins/ conopeptides by revealing their ability to disrupt protein-protein and protein-polysaccharide interactions that directly contribute to the disease. Similarly, mitigation of emerging diseases like AIDS and COVID-19 also could benefit from conotoxins as potential inhibitors of protein-protein interactions as treatment. Venom peptides from cone snails has the potential to treat countless diseases using blockage therapies.
[...] The results are noteworthy as each of these six venom fractions, which contain a mostly single or a very limited set of peptides, affected binding of domains with different receptor specificity to their corresponding receptors, which are proteins (CD36 and ICAM-1), and polysaccharide. This activity profile suggests that the peptides in these conotoxin fractions either bind to common structural elements in the different PfEMP1 domains, or that a few different peptides in the fraction may interact efficiently (concentration of each is lower proportionally to the complexity) with different domains.
Journal Reference:
Alberto Padilla, et. al.,Conus venom fractions inhibit the adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 domains to the host vascular receptors, Journal of Proteomics (DOI: 10.1016/j.jprot.2020.104083)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 22 2021, @04:27PM (3 children)
We can expect cone snails to make it onto the endangered species list soon. The horseshoe crab is working it's way closer to the list already.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 22 2021, @04:36PM (2 children)
Oh now he cares about the environment?! Ha ha nice one shithead.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Monday February 22 2021, @09:39PM (1 child)
Consider how much we do not know yet about how the chemical mechanisms of life work and interact with each other.
We are now investigating properties of a unique venom, already produced by a life form. How many things do we not know yet?
Every one is precious, even if some are so prolific to be a pest. Diversity is the key. To destroy the genome of a living organism before we even know how it works is akin to burning libraries without ever reading its books. Each life form contains a record of how it solved its needs. The study of their inner workings often greatly helps us solve our problems.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday February 22 2021, @10:07PM
It is not of concern that any life forms discovered to be useful to humans to become "endangered".
We will farm them.
Corn, cows, pigs, soybeans, tilapia, chickens, pine trees, ... Well, no sense listing them all.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 22 2021, @05:03PM
Possibly the finest short film Terry A. Davis ever created:
https://archive.org/download/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/videos/2017/2017-07-12T04:47:05+00:00%20-%2008JewishPig.MP4 [archive.org]
Thanks for the laughs, Terry.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday February 22 2021, @05:46PM
Kill the host, you kill the parasite too.
Ya know, just sayin'...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @12:36AM (3 children)
I thought that the treatment for malaria was hydroxychloroquine. Or is that just a Covid treatment nowadays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @03:52AM (1 child)
That explains it. I was wondering why the old lady across the street was licking snails in her garden this morning.
Now, about her thing with the cat...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @11:33PM
You don't lick cone snails, you get em to poke you with their mini harpoons that they shoot out from their trunk like appendage.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @04:24PM