The enzyme that helps create antibodies to fight malaria also causes DNA damage that can lead to a highly aggressive type of blood cancer in children, a new study has claimed. In equatorial Africa, a region known as "lymphoma belt," children are ten times more likely than in other parts of the world to develop Burkitt's lymphoma, a blood cancer that can be fatal if left untreated, researchers said. That area is also plagued by high rates of malaria, and scientists have spent the last 50 years trying to understand how the two diseases are connected.
The parasite that causes malaria infects red blood cells and liver cells, while Burkitt's lymphoma originates in infection-fighting white blood cells called B lymphocytes. Researchers working with mice found that the same enzyme that helps create antibodies that fight the malaria parasite also causes DNA damage that can lead to Burkitt's…
