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Healthy kidneys, by reabsorbing and recycling iron from the urine, stop anemia, one of the deadliest complications of the disease.
A study released this Monday involving researchers from the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) concluded that in cases of malaria you healthy kidneysby reabsorbing and recycling urine iron, stop anemiaone of the most lethal complications of the disease.
In an experiment with mice with malaria, the IGC scientists discovered, according to announcement of the institute, that certain kidney cells – in this case, the epithelial cells of the proximal tubule – become, due to alteration of their genetic programming, capable of absorbing and store the iron (chemical compound) and later return it to blood circulationallowing new red blood cells to form.
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the parasite of the genus ‘Plasmodium’ which is transmitted by bite of a female mosquito of the genus ‘Anopheles’. In the most severe cases, as a result of simultaneous complications such as acute renal failure and severe anemia, the disease can lead to death.
When the parasite enters the bloodstream and destroys red blood cells, which depend on iron to carry oxygen to all parts of the body, the patient becomes anemic, more debilitated and at greater risk of dying. The IGC team led by researcher Miguel Soares, who coordinates the Inflammation Laboratory, concluded that healthy kidneys, “by restoring the iron circuit and the number of red blood cells, put a brake on anemia, ensuring that the different organs receive oxygen and continue to function when the host is infected” with the malaria parasite.
Mice that were genetically modified and were deprived of the protein ferroportin, which allows kidney cells to channel iron to the rest of the body, developed severe anemia and died.
For Miguel Soares, quoted in the IGC communiqué, the discovery made “is a clear demonstration of how the Metabolism of an infected host can be modified to determine the outcome of an infectious disease, in this case malaria”.
The results obtained, and published in the digital edition of the specialty magazine Cell Reportsopen the way, according to the IGC, for the more confident prognosis of malaria patients and for targeted treatments.
The IGC study had the collaboration of foreign scientific institutions, including the Institute of Health Sciences in Angola, a country where malaria is endemic, and was based on clinical data from 400 patients admitted to the Angolan hospital Josina Machel-Maria Pia, in Luanda. The work reveals that patients with malaria “may become more susceptible to acute renal failure and anemia if the renal cells are unable to export the iron they absorb”.
