STM: Antimalarial drugs help treat diarrhea.

Oct 3, 2020 /--- In a new study, researchers found that a class of compounds used in malaria treatment has the ability to kill the intestinal parasite, the cryptosporidium.
are the leading cause of diarrhoeal diseases and incurable child deaths.
results were published recently in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
the authors, these compounds are called bi-cyclocarbon butane and are specifically targeted at the enzymes responsible for protein production in parasites.
"There is an urgent need for drugs because of the high rate of diarrhoeal deaths among young children from this pathogen infection, and there are no effective drugs to treat the infection and no vaccine to prevent it," said Sumiti Vinayak, lead author of the study at www.pixabay.com.
, patients and farm animals with low immune function are also vulnerable to cryptosporidium.
"s researchers first conducted extensive analytical studies of existing drugs, looking for drugs that could be re-used in cryptosporidium treatment.
looked at a number of antimicrobial-like compounds, they identified antimalarial bicarbonal nitrogen hetero-butane as a candidate compound and tested it.
the compound was shown to be very effective in killing parasites in cell cultures, the researchers tested it in mice with low immune function from cryptosporidium infection.
found that taking it or oral once a day for four days could eliminate infections in mice.
" study offers a new approach to cryptosporidium.
It's important that because we're reusing the compounds in the antimalarial program that are being developed, it allows us to apply the program to the treatment of cryptosporidium disease," the authors question Eamon Comer said.
, the researchers conducted comprehensive bio-chemical and genetic studies to determine how these compounds kill parasites.
they found an enzyme in the parasite that makes tRNAs.
Vinayak said the enzyme molecule is very similar to the enzyme molecule in the parasite that causes malaria, but is different from the human enzyme molecule, so it can be used as an effective drug target.
researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing techniques to perform targeted mutations in cryptosporidium-related genes so that they were not subject to drug attacks.
Vinayak said the change has made parasites resistant to drugs, further confirming that blocking the enzyme is the drug's mechanism for killing cryptosporidium.
(Bioon.com) Source: Repurposed anti-malarial compounds kill diarrheal parasite, Study finds original source: Sumiti Vinayak et al, Bicyclic azetidines kill the diarrheal pathogen Cryptosporidium in by mice resing parasite phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase, Scienceal Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aba8412.