Scientists have identified a genetic mutation that protects the unborn child from the devastating effects of a mother's malaria infection.
Among 565 women in the Tanzanian district of Muheza, lead author Patrick Duffy, a malariologist at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, noticed that a mutation in a foetal gene called sFlt1 seemed to spare the foetus from malaria, yet only during a mother's first pregnancy.
Yet among first children with another version of sFlt1, common in places without malaria, 10 percent did not carry to term.
These children were also more than twice as likely to be born underweight as children with the protective version of the gene.
About Mosquito Diseases
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
After one or two more pregnancies, mothers develop antibody resistance to placental malaria, allowing children without the non-protective mutation to survive.
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The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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