Protecting children’s kidneys during severe malaria through earlier diagnostic tools

Miguel Soares

Fundação GIMM – Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Portugal

Severe malaria continues to kill many children, particularly in parts of Africa. One of its most dangerous complications is acute kidney injury, which greatly increases the risk of death. The biological mechanisms leading to this complication remain unclear and no specific treatment currently exists. Previous research suggests that a natural yellow pigment released from damaged red blood cells may protect the kidneys during malaria. The project focuses on how this pigment protects the kidney and on the mechanisms behind that protection.

The project is a partnership between the laboratory of Miguel Soares at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine in Lisbon, which works on the protective biology of the pigment, and the group of Andrea Conroy at Indiana University, which works on paediatric malaria and leads the clinical validation in large cohorts of children in Uganda. By combining laboratory studies and clinical data, the team will investigate the mechanisms behind the protective effect of the pigment, identify blood markers that can pinpoint children at high risk of kidney injury and validate these markers in children with severe malaria.

The project seeks to translate biological discoveries into new clinical tools that enable earlier diagnostics, improve treatment decisions and help save the lives of children affected by severe malaria.

• Andrea Conroy, Trustees of Indiana University, United States of America

Exploring ferroptosis protection by bilirubin in malaria-associated acute kidney injury

€675,112.00