PhD Students at Microbiology Laboratory produce Outstanding
Research on Parasites
28 October 2010
"Malaria parasites have acquired resistance to a lot of drugs, so new drugs are urgently needed. When you know the organism better, you can exploit this knowledge for treatment."
Dr Kevin Tan of the Department of Microbiology. He oversees the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Parasitology
PARASITE RESEARCH: PhD students Mr Ch'ng Jun Hong and Dr Haris Mirza conducted detailed studies on the malaria parasite and emerging intestinal parasite Blastocystis which led to significant discoveries.
An NUS microbiology laboratory has shed light on the workings of not one but two parasites - the malaria parasite and an emerging intestinal parasite Blastocystis. Under the guidance of Dr Kevin Tan, two of his PhD students Mr Ch'ng Jun Hong and Dr Haris Mirza conducted detailed studies on these parasites which led to significant discoveries.
Mr Ch'ng's research showed that the malaria parasite harbours cellular machinery to activate its own demise (programmed cell death) by specific enzymes. He demonstrated that defined molecular pathways exist during malaria cell death. A poster on these findings was among the 150 posters presented at the 18th Euroconference on Apoptosis; and it won one of three prizes awarded. His work was also recently published in a leading journal by Nature Publishing Group, Cell Death & Disease.
Mr Ch'ng's study is timely as there are no effective vaccines for malaria-stricken patients to-date. "Malaria parasites have acquired resistance to a lot of drugs, so new drugs are urgently needed. When you know the organism better, you can exploit this knowledge for treatment", said Dr Tan who oversees the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Parasitology.
"We now know that one organelle in part of the molecular pathway will be disrupted. The disruption releases a toxic enzyme and starts to break down the parasite. With this new knowledge, drugs which are known to be lysosome disruptive can potentially be used on malaria patients," noted Dr Tan.
The other study done by PhD student Dr Mirza involves understanding the host response to an emerging intestinal parasite called Blastocystis. His research showed that the Blastocystis parasite induces unusual molecular pathways in human intestinal cells, resulting in significant breach of their integrity. This may explain how the parasite caused intestinal disorders in patients.
He also showed how certain drugs can overcome the effects of the parasite by protecting the human cells, pointing at their therapeutic potential. The highlight of the work is that by the use of modern approaches, one can systematically address questions on how parasites cause disease, and how one can interfere with the disease process by specific molecular interventions of the human cells, instead of the parasite.
Dr Mirza and his collaborators gave a poster presentation on his research at the 12th International Congress of Parasitology; their poster won one out of the two prize categories awarded at the meeting where over 1000 posters were presented.
"Some researchers felt that the parasite is found in the gut and does not affect the body. With the additional information garnered, we found that some strains of Blastocystis are harmful and some other strains are not. This could explain why some people say that Blastocystis is not dangerous," explained Dr Tan.
Currently, the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Parasitology is moving towards applied, translational research, and it will work towards improving disease outcomes.
For more stories on their research, see-
- Little known parasite may be culprit behind diseases
- RESA, a culprit behind malaria
- Death journey: A cell's new route