BB researcher Sandra Cristina Nunes Pinto contributed to a major study led by Miguel Soares (GIMM), recently published in Science (AAAS).
The international research team uncovered a new role for bilirubin, a molecule long regarded merely as a byproduct of red blood cell breakdown.
The study shows that bilirubin can help protect against malaria by acting directly on the Plasmodium parasite inside red blood cells. By disrupting the parasite’s metabolism and its ability to detoxify heme, unconjugated bilirubin reduces the severity of infection.
These findings suggest that what is commonly identified as jaundice, an accumulation of bilirubin in the blood, may not only be a sign of liver dysfunction, but also part of an evolutionarily conserved defense mechanism against malaria.
The work raises important questions about the trade-offs in human biology between metabolic defense and disease.
Read the full paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq6741