News

Malaria infection of the placenta may reduce the amount of glucose that passes to the fetus, according to an NIH-funded study. The research involves a placenta on a chip model—a laboratory device incorporating placental tissue to simulate the interface between maternal blood and the outermost part of the placenta. The findings offer insight into how placental malaria may deprive the fetus of an essential nutrient and may inform the development of strategies to prevent or treat the condition.

During a research career that spans four decades, NICHD’s Judith Kassis, Ph.D., has learned many lessons along the way. Learn about her story.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have discovered another set of pore-like holes, or channels, traversing the membrane-bound sac that encloses the deadliest malaria parasite as it infects red blood cells. The channels enable the transport of lipids—fat-like molecules—between the blood cell and parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. The parasite draws lipids from the cell to sustain its growth and may also secrete other types of lipids to hijack cell functions to meet its needs.

Waiting 28 days to give iron supplements to malaria-infected children with a severe low red blood cell count (anemia) may improve their iron levels a year later, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In 2018, researchers funded by NICHD made significant progress in advancing the health and well-being of infants, children, teenagers, and adults across the United States and around the world.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have deciphered the role of a key protein that the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum uses to obtain nutrients while infecting red blood cells. Their study appears in Nature Microbiology.

The vacuole, a compartment inside human red blood cells in which malaria parasites reproduce and develop, takes on a distinct spherical shape just minutes before its membrane ruptures, leading to the release of parasites into the blood stream, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Researchers identify protective role of iron export protein and its mutation

The deadliest malaria parasite needs two proteins to infect red blood cells and exit the cells after it multiplies, a finding that may provide researchers with potential new targets for drug development.

The pores created by malaria parasites to exit red blood cells are promising targets for drugs such as heparin, according to an NICHD study.

Hydroxychloroquine, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat malaria and certain autoimmune diseases in pregnant women, appears to reduce transmission of Zika virus from pregnant mice to their fetuses, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

As part of an NICHD-supported study, researchers found that the outcomes of orphaned and abandoned children in low- and middle-income countries are similar whether they live in group homes or family-based settings.

A two-drug preventive treatment greatly reduces the severity of malaria during pregnancy, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The treatment provides an alternative for many parts of Africa where the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum has grown resistant to standard treatment.

The Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease Branch (MPIDB) was formed in 1988 as the Pediatric, Adolescent, and Maternal AIDS Branch. At that time, its mission was to support and conduct domestic and international research on the HIV/AIDS epidemic with a special focus on infants, children, adolescents, and women.

A year-round preventive drug treatment substantially reduces young children’s risk of contracting malaria and poses no serious risk of adverse events, according to a study by researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Ten projects that will enable non-government researchers to conduct clinical research at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. were announced today.

This February marks the 20th anniversary of the results of Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 076—the first study to show that drug therapy could reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. The NICHD and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) co-funded this study.

This year's World AIDS Day activities focus on efforts to eliminate new HIV/AIDS infections in adolescents and young adults, to treat those who are infected, and to make future generations AIDS free. This focus is part of the "Getting to Zero" theme (Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination, and Zero AIDS Deaths) that currently guides global efforts.

​A combination of anti-HIV drugs has been found to also reduce the risk of recurrent malaria by nearly half among HIV-positive children, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Iron is an essential nutrient for the basic health and functioning of the body. Without iron, oxygen is not delivered efficiently to cells, brain growth and development can be hampered, and the body struggles to maintain a strong immune system. Yet more than 2 billion people worldwide do not get enough iron, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) , making iron deficiency (ID) or iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) the world’s most common forms of malnutrition.