Friendly Gut Bacteria Help Fight Malaria

A new study has revealed that specific bacterial components in the human gut microbiota can trigger a natural defense mechanism that is highly protective against malaria transmission. Bahtiyar Yilmaz, a PhD student of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia PhD programme in Miguel Soares' laboratory, found that the Plasmodium parasite, the causative agent of malaria, expresses a sugar molecule called alpha-gal, which is also expressed at the surface of a strain of E. ...