Australian 'Trojan Horse' experiment uses cholesterol to trick malaria parasites into taking deadly drugs

Cholesterol could be a weapon in the fight against malaria and other potentially deadly parasitic diseases, according to researchers who have developed a new treatment.

Parasites that cause malaria do not produce their own cholesterol, but obtain it from host animals.

Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra and the Humboldt University in Berlin have developed a “Trojan method” in which cholesterol-like chemicals are added to existing malaria drugs to encourage the parasites to eat them.

Lead researcher Professor Alex Maier said the method was three to 25 times more effective at eliminating the parasites than drugs that do not contain cholesterol-like chemicals.

“By binding the drugs to cholesterol, the parasite actively attaches itself to the cholesterol and eats it. This allows us to smuggle drugs into optimal killing zones inside the parasite, where the drugs can do the most damage.”

Method could help overcome drug resistance

Co-researcher Professor Malcolm McLeod said the method could overcome the parasites' resistance to some malaria treatments.

“There was a very interesting compound called artemisinin, which is currently one of the most important malaria treatments, but unfortunately even resistance to it is developing,” said Professor McLeod.

The results of the research were published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

The article's peer reviewers noted that the methods described by the team needed further research.

Professor McLeod agreed, saying it could be several years before this delivery method is used to treat malaria in humans.

“The ultimate goal would be to move on to human trials, but that is still some time away,” he said.

In 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 malaria deaths worldwide.

In 2023, 266 cases of malaria were reported to Australian health authorities, almost all of which were transmitted overseas.

The research team hopes that the Trojan horse method could also be used to treat the intestinal disease Giardia as well as the skin, mouth, nose and throat disease Leishmaniasis.

The findings could also help agriculture in the fight against livestock parasites.