Plasmodium-induced disruption of brain endothelial barrier integrity in vitro and in mice is prevented by inhibitors of farnesyltransferase
Cláudia Gomes, Kelly A. Crotty, Mariana C. Borges Silva, Marilyn Vasquez, Lizeth Chicas, Isaac Salzano, Ana Rodriguez · 2026
Read Plasmodium-induced disruption of brain endothelial barrier integrity in vitro and in mice is prevented by inhibitors of farnesyltransferase by Cláudia Gomes, Kelly A. Crotty, Mariana C. Borges Silva, Marilyn Vasquez, Lizeth Chicas, Isaac Salzano, Ana Rodriguez (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13551684.txt.
Description
Cláudia Gomes and six colleagues asked in a 2026 study whether blocking a chemical tagging process can protect the blood-brain barrier in cerebral malaria. Malaria parasites damage the barrier lining brain vessels, and no add-on treatment addresses that loss. The team exposed human brain vessel cells to lysates of infected red blood cells and also used a mouse model of cerebral malaria.
Adding the lipid tag building block worsened barrier disruption, while inhibitors of the enzyme farnesyltransferase protected the barrier in cell tests. A related enzyme's inhibitors did not help, sharpening the target. Mice given the inhibitor tipifarnib developed cerebral malaria later and survived better, suggesting a candidate add-on therapy worth pursuing alongside parasite-killing drugs.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Cláudia Gomes, Kelly A. Crotty, Mariana C. Borges Silva, Marilyn Vasquez, Lizeth Chicas, Isaac Salzano, Ana Rodriguez |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 34162 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |