Malaria Infections Could be Controlled through Eating Habits: Study
The discovery of daily rhythms in parasites dates back to the Hippocratic era and a taxonomically diverse range of parasites (including fungi, helminths, Coccidia, nematodes, trypanosomes, and malaria parasites) display rhythms in development and several behaviours. Yet, how rhythms in many parasite traits are established and maintained remains mysterious, despite their significance, as these traits underpin the replication and transmission of parasites.
Multiple, convergent, evolutionary origins for circadian oscillators is thought to be explained by the fitness advantages of being able to anticipate and exploit predictable daily changes in the external environment, as well as keeping internal processes optimally timed. The environment that an endoparasite experiences inside its host is generated by many rhythmic processes, including daily fluctuations in the availability of resources, and the nature and strength of immune responses.
Now, an international team led by the University of Edinburgh have concluded that malaria might be brought under control by managing the eating habits of infected people or animals.
They found that changing the feeding times of the animals, by allowing them to eat during the day instead of at night, altered the timing of parasite multiplication from night to
day, in line with the mealtime of the mice.Scientists saw that feeding time meant that malaria parasites grew in number and thus the disease became stronger. In other words, altering feeding times may disrupt multiplication rates in malaria, which could be a good strategy to manage the disease. The sudden increase in multiplication rates in malaria parasites can be linked to sugar levels that jump when animal is eating. Allowing animals to eat during the day instead of at night, altered the timing of parasite multiplication from night to day. Therefore, it is possible to disrupt the multiplication rates of malaria parasites – this could be achieved through diet changes or some medication.
“We were surprised by how strongly malaria infection responded to changes in the eating times of the mice they were infecting. This offers a new avenue for research. If we can disrupt the link, it could reduce both the impact and the spread of malaria infection,” said Kimberley Prior, of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
