Crime-Scene Compound 'Luminol' May Fight Malaria Someday

Luminol, a crime-scene compound, can someday help to trigger an amino acid in the hemoglobin, which will kill the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells, according to medindia.

The compound called luminol glows blue when it contacts red blood cell haemoglobin. The researchers found that the compound can be used to trigger an amino acid present in hemoglobin to kill the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells, according to indiatoday.

"The light that luminol emits is enhanced by the antimalarial drug artemisinin," said senior author Daniel Goldberg, professor of medicine and molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US. "We think these agents could be combined to form an innovative treatment for malaria," Goldberg said.

The currently used malaria treatments are not too effective, as the parasite mutates. Hence, the new approach aims at proteins that are made by human red blood cells, which the parasite cannot mutate. Scientists worked with red blood cells which have been infected with the malaria parasite.

"All of these agents -- the amino acid, the luminol and artemisinin -- have been cleared for use in humans individually, so we are optimistic that they won't present any safety problems together," Goldberg said.

"This could be a promising new treatment for a devastating disease," he noted.

The results appeared online in the journal eLife.