Differential Expression of Mitochondrial Natural Antisense Transcripts in Clinical Samples of Plasmodium falciparum Across Multiple Disease Phenotypes
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ABSTRACT: The malaria parasite mitochondria are critical targets for antimalarial drugs, but emerging drug resistance against existing protein targets necessitates novel therapeutic approaches. Using custom-designed, multi-probe microarrays and pooled RNA sequencing experiments in patient samples of Plasmodium falciparum, we identified specific Natural Antisense Transcripts (NATs) encoded by both the mitochondrial genome and the nucleus, which are directed to the parasite mitochondria. These findings span three clinical manifestations of malaria - hepatic dysfunction (HD), cerebral malaria (CM), and thrombocytopenia. Although mitochondrial activity is known to be reduced in blood-stage malaria, a significant number of mitochondrial sense-antisense transcript pairs show correlated gene expression in the CM cluster. The thrombocytopenia cluster shows the most upregulated antisense transcripts. This study provides direct evidence for the origin of NATs from the mitochondrial genome. It further provides a dynamic gene regulation profile of key sense and antisense transcripts responsible for mitochondrial translation and bioenergetics. Our findings suggest that active-post transcriptional gene regulation effectively sustains the metabolic flexibility of the parasite mitochondria. Identifying key genes with differentially regulated NATs specific to the observed disease phenotypes presents novel chemotherapeutic targets, disrupting essential functions of the parasite mitochondria.
ORGANISM(S): Plasmodium falciparum
PROVIDER: GSE272963 | GEO | 2026/02/25
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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