An ingredient in soap and toothpaste, triclosan can help fight the increasingly common type of drug-resistant malaria, more commonly known as malaria. The discovery was made by scientists from the University of Cambridge. Their research was reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
In toothpaste, triclosan acts as an agent that prevents the growth of bacteria responsible for the development of caries (it blocks the action of the ENR enzyme, which is involved in the production of fatty acids).
Scientists have known for some time that triclosan also inhibits the growth of the malaria-causing protozoa Plasmodium in the blood. They suspected that this was precisely because the triclosan was interfering with the ENR enzyme. However, subsequent studies did not confirm this hypothesis.
Recent studies have shown that triclosan inhibits the growth of the parasite by blocking an entirely different enzyme – DHFR. The enzyme DHFR is the target of a well-known antimalarial drug called pyrimethamine, but many parasites, especially in African countries, have developed resistance to this drug.
Triclosan offers hope for treating drug-resistant malaria, which is an increasing threat in Africa and Southeast Asia, while our stock of possible pharmacological solutions is slowly shrinking. Therefore, the need to find new drugs is becoming more and more urgent – says the author of the research, Prof. Steve Oliver.
Malaria, also called malaria, is an acute or chronic tropical disease caused by one or more of five species of the single-celled protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. The disease is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is considered one of the ten deadliest diseases of our time. It is estimated that 220 million people suffer from malaria every year, of which between 1 and 3 million die.