Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Paradoxical effect
Paradoxically, Soares also found that if there are high levels of haem in the
blood after infection with the malaria parasite, the disease is more likely to
develop. In fact, even the mice carrying one copy of the sickle-cell gene, and
therefore less likely to develop malaria, could be made more likely to develop
the disease by injecting them with haem after they were infected.
Protection confirmed
To confirm this, Soares and colleagues tested whether the gas could protect
normal mice from succumbing to malaria. They infected the mice with the
malaria parasite and then allowed them to inhale small doses of carbon
monoxide too low to have a toxic effect. The mice did not develop the
disease.
Soares suggests the gas which is already known to have some therapeutic
properties in small quantities could be used to protect against malaria in
people infected with the parasite.
But there is likely to be more to the development of malaria than simply
controlling haem levels in the blood. It is already known that an inflammatory
response also plays a part in the onset of malaria, Soares says, which
suggests the disease is triggered by a two-pronged attack.
The overactive immune response leads to the accumulation of toxic T-cells.
In another experiment, Soares and his team showed that build-up of these
pathogenic cells after infection with malaria is inhibited in mice with one
sickle cell gene although the protective mechanism at work has yet to be
established.