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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Conflict & Security

From Tourism Plague to Promising Weapon Against Malaria’s Deadliest Form

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Researchers in Panama found that compounds from sargassum significantly inhibited Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for cerebral malaria, in an early-stage study.
  • The researchers said the compound showed strong activity against the parasite without appearing toxic to healthy cells.
  • The project began as a school research initiative and has been published in a scientific journal, but its team needs funding for further work.

Sargassum, a macroalga that has become a tourism headache and environmental threat in the Caribbean, may offer a promising lead against one of malaria’s most dangerous forms.

The discovery emerged from a school project launched in Panama in 2023 by biotechnology researcher Lorena Coronado, biology teacher and algae researcher Noemí León de Santos, and Isaac Almanza, who was then a final-year high school student. Their work found that compounds from the algae significantly inhibited the growth of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes cerebral malaria.

It was a ‘wow!’

· Lorena CoronadoThe biotechnology researcher described the team’s reaction to the algae compounds’ activity against the malaria parasite.

“It was a ‘wow!’” said Coronado, describing the moment researchers saw how active the compounds were. The most encouraging finding, she said, was that the compound did not appear toxic to healthy cells while remaining highly active against the parasite. “It is a very hopeful result,” she added.

The most beautiful surprise was that the compound was not toxic, it was not killing healthy cells, but it was highly active against the parasite.

· Lorena CoronadoShe highlighted the early finding that the compound affected the parasite without harming healthy cells.

The researchers collected fresh sargassum that naturally reaches Panama’s Caribbean coast. They dried the algae, ground it and prepared an extract. Coronado cautioned that this work is still at an early stage, and the team is seeking funding to continue the research. The project began through the Young Scientists Program of Panama’s National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation.

A paper titled “Antimalarial Activity of Pelagic Sargassum fluitans and Sargassum natans Along the Caribbean Coast of Panama” appeared in July in the indexed journal Integrative and Comparative Biology, published by Oxford University Press. The article cited 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 deaths worldwide in 2024. Africa accounted for 95% of cases and deaths, while the Americas recorded 536,644 cases and 136 deaths. Researchers estimate that 30% of cases in the Americas involved cerebral malaria.

It is a very hopeful result.

· Lorena CoronadoCoronado described the significance of the early-stage research.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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