Malaria is one of the deadliest infectious diseases (there are almost a million infections a year, primarily in children), affecting more than one third of the world’s population. At present, there is no vaccine for the disease and the available treatments are only partially effective. Clearly, finding effective treatments is a matter of urgency if we consider this situation. However, using only the currently-available research methods, the task of treating the disease is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive, both in terms of necessary resources and time. So, we need a new approach to the search for therapeutic solutions which will reduce costs and speed up the availability of new treatments.
We present just such a methodological proposal here. The proposal is based on the development of mathematical models that allow us to identify potential therapeutic targets.
The method involves incorporating the available information about the biochemical and molecular bases of processes involved in the development of the infection into mathematical methods; models that allow for the systematic exploration of the effect of actions on “target” processes. These models have the advantage of quantitatively reflecting the complexity of the processes involved, the relationships between them, which are also very complex and the dynamic dimension of the responses to these actions.
The results show that, in the case of malaria, several processes that had not been considered relevant to date can be regarded, however, as crucial for the remission of the disease.
Translation: Minerva Gutiérrez (revisions by Sally Burgess)
Dubbing: Sally Burgess
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Creative Commons: Reconocimiento - No Comercial (CC BY NC).
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