The cryo-EM structure of the Plasmodium falciparum 20S proteasome and its use in the fight against malaria.

ABSTRACT: Plasmodium falciparum is the parasite responsible for the most severe form of malaria. Its increasing resistance to existing antimalarials represents a major threat to human health and urges the development of new therapeutic strategies to fight malaria. The proteasome is a protease complex essential in all eukaryotes. Accordingly, inhibition of the Plasmodium 20S proteasome is highly toxic for the parasite at all of its infective and developmental stages. Proteasome inhibitors have antimalarial potential both as curative and transmission blocking agents, but in order to have therapeutic application, they must specifically target the Plasmodium proteasome and not its human counterpart. X-ray crystallography has been widely used to determine structures of yeast and mammalian 20S proteasomes

SUBMITTER: Li H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5140733 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature