Functional characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum and P. berghei homologues of macrophage migration inhibitory factor.

ABSTRACT: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a mammalian cytokine that participates in innate and adaptive immune responses. Homologues of mammalian MIF have been discovered in parasite species infecting mammalian hosts (nematodes and malaria parasites), which suggests that the parasites express MIF to modulate the host immune response upon infection. Here we report the first biochemical and genetic characterization of a Plasmodium MIF (PMIF). Like human MIF, histidine-tagged purified recombinant PMIF shows tautomerase and oxidoreductase activities (although the activities are reduced compared to those of histidine-tagged human MIF) and efficiently inhibits AP-1 activity in human embryonic kidney cells. Furthermore, we found that Plasmodium berghei MIF is expressed in both a mammalian h

SUBMITTER: Augustijn KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1828592 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature