Relationship between cell-cell interactions and disease severity in patients with cerebral malaria

严重疟疾是一系列疾病并发症，每年导致全球约200万人死亡。非洲的少年儿童和东南亚一些地区的青壮年受到的影响尤其严重。前往这些地区的旅行者也面临着相当大的风险。疟疾最危险的并发症之一是大脑受到影响，这被称为脑型疟疾。关于血液中循环的寄生虫与导致一些脑型疟疾患者死亡的破坏性大脑功能障碍之间的联系，我们仍然不够了解。在这个项目中，我们将研究一些关于脑型疟疾如何发展的新想法。我们将对脑型疟疾患者的脑组织进行详细研究，并将观察结果与其他原因死亡儿童的类似观察结果进行比较。然后我们将使用我们开发的一个实验模型，在这个模型中，我们将各种类型的细胞放在培养瓶中，这些细胞存在于死于脑型疟疾的人的脑部病变中。我们的目的是确定一些新的治疗靶点，供以后用于治疗脑型疟疾患者。

Severe malaria is a collection of disease complications that leads to about 2 million deaths each year worldwide. Young children in Africa and young adults in several parts of South-East Asia are particularly affected. Travellers to these regions are also at considerable risk. One of the most dangerous complications of malaria is when the brain becomes affected, which is called cerebral malaria. We still do not understand enough about the changes that link the parasite circulating in the blood with the devastating disturbance of brain function that causes death in some people who develop cerebral malaria. In this project we will investigate some new ideas about how cerebral malaria develops. We will perform a detailed study of brain tissue taken from victims of cerebral malaria and compare the observations with similar ones in children who died of other causes. Then we will work with an experimental model we have developed, in which we put together in culture flasks the various types of cell that are found in the brain lesions in people who die from cerebral malaria. Our aim is to identify some new therapeutic targets for later use in treatment of cerebral malaria patients.