Cancer medication helps to fight against malaria: Study

A group of UCF researchers are looking to use cancer pharmaceuticals to hasten the development of fresh, life-saving malaria treatments because the disease is getting more and more resistant to existing medications.

A group of UCF researchers are looking to use cancer pharmaceuticals to hasten the development of fresh, life-saving malaria treatments because the disease is getting more and more resistant to existing medications.

The findings of the study were published in the ACS Infectious Diseases journal.

As part of the study, Ph.D. candidate Monica Bohmer, working under Chakrabarti's supervision, tested a range of anti-cancer protein kinase inhibitors to identify inhibitors that are known to target human Polo-like kinase, a type of protein kinase that plays an important role in cell division in humans.

She discovered that a group of inhibitors, specifically BI-2536, a known human Polo-like kinase 1 inhibitor, exhibited strong anti-malarial properties.