ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2026) Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have discovered that the malaria parasite relies on a specific type of fat to survive and multiply within the human host, uncovering a previously unknown vulnerability that could help guide future treatments.
Published in Genome Biology, the study analysed blood samples from 396 children in Burkina Faso before and during malaria infection. The researchers found that, rather than using all available nutrients, the malaria parasite consistently selects blood fats containing linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid obtained through the diet, to support its growth during the blood stage of the disease.
"Malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives every year, yet we still have much to learn about how the parasite survives inside the human body," said Associate Professor of Biology at NYU Abu Dhabi and the study's senior author Youssef Idaghdour. "We found that the parasite is surprisingly selective about the nutrients it uses. That gives us an opportunity to target a weakness that was previously unknown and could eventually lead to new ways of treating the disease."
