MALARIA PROTEIN USED FOR CANCER TREATMENT.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the malaria parasite because it produces a protein that binds readily to a sugar molecule in the placenta. This same sugar molecule is also found in most cancer cells; researchers have shown it is possible to attach anticancer drugs to the malaria protein and use it to deliver them precisely to tumors by targeting the sugar. While the fact that the same sugar molecule (a type of chondroitin sulfate) is found in both the placenta and most cancers is not surprising - since both have cells that grow fast - the evidence for this has only surfaced recently, as senior author Mads Daugaard, an assistant professor of urologic science at UBC, explains: Once the team discovered that the malaria parasite uses a protein it produces called VAR2CSA to embed itself in the placenta, they immediately saw the potential to use the process as a way to target cancer drugs to tumors. Read more;http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/300939.php