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Amino
Acid Can Help Treat Malaria
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Arginine
levels are so closely correlated to Malaria disease severity
that researchers can predict which children have the most
severe cases based on their arginine levels. |
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Arginine, an amino acid produced naturally
in the body and found in nuts and rice, may be useful in the
treatment of malaria, as researchers found that among 75 children
in Africa, those with the lowest levels of arginine suffered
the deadliest consequences of malaria.
The
disease, which is caused by a parasite transmitted through
the bite of a female mosquito, kills more than 1 million people
each year despite current treatment methods and causes fever,
muscle stiffness, sweating and shaking.
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Malaria
is a major ongoing disaster, and the numbers are staggering: |
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Half
of the world's population--2.5 billion people--lives at risk of
getting malaria. |
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300
million to 500 million people become sick with this disease each
year. |
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Malaria
kills up to 3 million people each year and a few hundred each hour.
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Each
minute, 3 to 5 children die of Malaria! |
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Every
month malaria kills nearly as many people as AIDS has killed in
the past 15 years. |
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Each
hour, malaria kills more people than the 1995 EBOLA epidemic in
Zaire. However, malaria is not recognized in the developed world
as a disaster like AIDS, EBOLA or other major hardships. |
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Malaria
has not been a high profile disease; exotic viruses or disasters
that kill rapidly tend to make the Front Page. |
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People
with serious cases of malaria lie in comas; they enter a profound
sleep, far from any cameras. |
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It is thought that arginine works to treat malaria
by boosting nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes blood vessels
and promotes blood flow by keeping arteries flexible and can also
kill parasites.
The researchers believe higher levels of arginine
and nitric oxide could increase blood flow and stop blood cells
infected with the parasite from sticking to the lining of blood
vessels.
In the study, extremely low levels of arginine and
too little nitric oxide were linked to the most severe malaria cases.
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Arginine
levels were so closely correlated to disease severity that
researchers could predict which children had the most severe
cases based on their arginine levels. |
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Drugs such as chloroquine, quinine and artemesin
are used to treat malaria, however drug resistance is making the
disease increasingly difficult to treat.
Researchers believe that combining arginine with anti-malaria
drugs may be a more effective way to treat malaria, because arginine
is inexpensive, relatively safe and has already been proven to
boost nitric oxide levels.
Arginine is currently used to treat narrowed arteries, extreme
cases of high blood pressure and other heart and circulatory diseases.
Researchers noted that nitric oxide could
be toxic to the body in high doses or in the wrong organs. However,
arginine treatments, if used correctly, could boost nitric oxide
levels naturally so that they would reach appropriate levels as
well as the right places in the body.
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The
Lancet February 22, 2003:361(9358);676-678 |
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