Nutrient Limitation Mimics Artemisinin Tolerance in Malaria.

ABSTRACT: Mounting evidence demonstrates that nutritional environment can alter pathogen drug sensitivity. While the rich media used for in vitro culture contains supraphysiological nutrient concentrations, pathogens encounter a relatively restrictive environment in vivo. We assessed the effect of nutrient limitation on the protozoan parasite that causes malaria and demonstrated that short-term growth under physiologically relevant mild nutrient stress (or "metabolic priming") triggers increased tolerance of a potent antimalarial drug. We observed beneficial effects using both short-term survival assays and longer-term proliferation studies, where metabolic priming increases parasite survival to a level previously defined as resistant (>1% survival). We performed these assessments by e

SUBMITTER: Brown AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10294616 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature