Why malaria parasites infect humans and chimpanzees? Mystery’s been solved – NewsEverything | Technology

Scientists have been thinking about why malaria parasites infect humans and chimpanzees for a century. The parasite in question P. malariae causes a rather mild disease, but ever since the 1920s scientists couldn’t figure out why chimpanzees are infected by parasites that appeared identical to it. But now researchers at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with scientists from the University of Pennsylvania might have uncovered this mystery.

Female Anopheles mosquitoes spread malaria parasites both in apes and humans. Image credit: James Gathany, CDC via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Humans and chimpanzees are distant relatives when it comes to evolution. And there are some diseases that affect us in similar ways – that is completely normal. However, when it comes to parasites it is strange that human malaria parasites and chimp malaria parasites are nearly identical. Like, where do they come from? How did they evolve?

P. malariae is actually one of six species that spreads malaria among humans. And it is definitely not the worst. In fact, the disease caused by the P. malariae is actually quite mild. If untreated, though, it might cause long-lasting consequences, so it shouldn’t be overlooked. A bacteria very similar to P. malariae infects chimpanzees as well. Scientists were thinking that these bacteria might belong to the same species. However, they could not verify that because the genetic make-up of the chimpanzee strain had never been studied. Until now.

Researchers now performed parasite’s DNA analysis, using leading edge techniques. This yielded quite unexpected results – there are actually three species of malaria parasites. One, still known as P. malariae, infects mainly humans. The other two, which are probably still not named, infect apes, including chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos. The relation between the human P. malariae and one of the ape malaria parasites is actually quite distant. The other one is more closely related to P. malariae.

Dr Lindsey Plenderleith, one of the authors of the study, said: “Among the six parasites that cause malaria in humans, P. malariae is one of the least well understood. Our findings could provide vital clues on how it became able to infect people, as well as helping scientists gauge if further jumps of ape parasites into humans are likely.”

It is estimated that 1-3 million people die from malaria every year. There is an approved vaccine, but for most people mosquito nests, preventive medicine and repellents are the most approachable methods of preventing malaria. Scientists are trying to understand malaria better so that they could stop it entirely – remove this bacterial disease from the population of mosquitos. Hopefully, this research can contribute to that.

Source: University of Edinburgh

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