Two-for-One: A Physics Discovery Suggests a New Way to Treat Malaria

*Editor: Carlyle Webb*

To most of us, crystals mean jewelry, geodes, or science kits. In reality, crystallization underlies a huge range of phenomena central to human health—from bone formation to Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid fibrils) to drug manufacturing.

Peter Vekilov and colleagues at the University of Houston set out to study advanced crystallization processes in preparation for an ISS spaceflight experiment. They hoped to learn more about how crystals form and degrade. Instead, they discovered new ways to combine malaria drugs that may be far more effective—and uncovered principles with broad implications for materials science.

The malaria parasite survives by converting toxic hematin into a harmless crystal (hemozoin). Malaria kills roughly 500,000 people worldwide each year, and existing drugs are losing effectiveness as the parasite adapts. The team tested combinations of four active antimalarials: chloroquine, quinine, mefloquine, and amodiaquine.

The results were unexpected. Randomly combined, drugs often cancelled each other out. The key discovery: effective combinations paired one drug targeting horizontal crystal faces with one targeting vertical faces. Crucially, these double-surface combinations enhanced each other at low concentrations but antagonized each other at high concentrations—contradicting the common assumption that more of a good thing is better.

By blocking hematin crystallization at two separate points, parasites face two adaptation challenges simultaneously, extending the useful life of any treatment regimen.

NASA supported this research as part of preparation for ISS experiments. The findings also translate into materials science, with potential applications ranging from improved drug purification to cloud seeding for weather modification.

Credit: [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/two-for-one-a-physics-discovery-suggests-a-new-way-to-treat-malaria)