A group of scientists in Structural Biology at the University of Southampton has recently revealed after their latest research that the three-dimensional study of vitamin synthesis by enzymes in malarial parasites can help it in developing a new drug as a treatment for fighting the ailment called malaria.

It is being said by the team of scientists that millions of people are infected and die due to malaria each year. It is highly contagious, causing deaths of many and is easily caused by mosquito gnaw, says the report. Also, it has been found that the Plasmodium species are highly resistant to the drugs currently available, proving to be a great hindrance to the malaria treatment. Therefore, there is a great need for finding a strong medication for tackling the ailment.

In order to look out for an effective drug to combat malaria, Dr. Ivo Tews along with his team studied a 3D crystal model of the assembly from individual proteins and concluded that the enzymes had an internal tunnel for transferring reactive reaction intermediates.

The team told the reporters that in order to develop new drugs that could fight malaria, it was much essential to study the way of malarial enzymes to create important vitamins. They told that it has been found that the enzymes develop vitamin B6, which could be much beneficial in making a new drug so as to defeat malaria parasite.

"The structural studies explain how these vital enzymes are activated and show the substrate of vitamin B6 biosynthesis bound to give insights into the chemistry of PLP biosynthesis", told the team as per the report uncovered.

Further, the team made a conclusion that the study would help to create specific inhibitors, which would target active enzyme sites or control the assembly of proteins. This would further help in fighting the infectious disease.