Antimalarial drug targets in Plasmodium falciparum predicted by stage-specific metabolic network analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite enormous efforts to combat malaria the disease still afflicts up to half a billion people each year of which more than one million die. Currently no approved vaccine is available and resistances to antimalarials are widely spread. Hence, new antimalarial drugs are urgently needed.

Results

Here, we present a computational analysis of the metabolism of Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria pathogen. We assembled a compartmentalized metabolic model and predicted life cycle stage specific metabolism with the help of a flux balance approach that integrates gene expression data. Predicted metabolite exchanges between parasite and host were found to be in good accordance with experimental findings when the parasite's metabolic network was embedded into tha

SUBMITTER: Huthmacher C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2941759 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature