Project description:Comaprision of P.falciparum clinical isolates showing Uncomplicated disease with that shwoing complicated disease(Cerebral malaria) The experiment was designed to try and identify differences if any, at the genome level between P.falciparum isolates from patients with uncomplicated malaria vs. patients with complicated malaria (Cerebral malaria). The emphasis was to highlight possible amplifications/deletions in different regions of the parasite genome.
Project description:The development of antimalarial drug resistance is an ongoing problem threatening progress towards malaria elimination, and antimalarial treatments are urgently needed for drug-resistant malaria infections. Host-directed therapies (HDT) represent an attractive strategy for the devel-opment of new antimalarials with untapped targets and low propensity for resistance. In addi-tion, drug repurposing in the context of HDT can lead to a substantial decrease in the time and resources required to develop novel antimalarials. Host BCL-XL is a major target in anti-cancer therapy and is essential for the development of numerous intracellular pathogens. We hypothe-sised that red blood cell BCL-XL is essential for Plasmodium development and tested this hypoth-esis by using six BCL-XL inhibitors, including one FDA-approved compound. All BCL-xL inhibitors tested impaired proliferation of P. falciparum 3D7 parasites in vitro at low parasite inhibitory concentrations. Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence microscopy assays revealed that host BCL-xL is transferred from the host red blood cells (RBCs) to the parasite upon infection. Further, immunoprecipitation of BCL-XL coupled with mass spectrometry analysis identified that BCL-XL forms unique molecular complexes with human μ-calpain in uninfected RBCs, and with human SHOC2 in infected RBCs. These results open exciting perspectives for the development of host-directed antimalarial therapies and drug repurposing efforts.
Project description:Plasmodium falciparum causes the most lethal form of malaria. The frontline treatments for this severe disease are combination therapies based on semisynthetic peroxide antimalarials, known as artemisinins. There is growing resistance to artemisinins and new drugs with novel mechanisms of action are urgently required. Synthetic peroxide antimalarials, known as ozonides, exhibit potent antimalarial activity both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we used chemical proteomics to investigate the protein alkylation targets of clickable artemisinin and ozonide probes, including an analogue of the ozonide clinical candidate, OZ439. We greatly expanded the list of protein targets for peroxide antimalarials and identified redox processes as being significantly enriched from the list of protein targets for both artemisinins and ozonides. Disrupted redox homeostasis was confirmed with the use of a genetically encoded fluorescence-based biosensor comprising a redox-sensitive GFP (roGFP) fused to human glutaredoxin 1. This facilitated specific and dynamic live imaging of the glutathione redox potential in the cytosol of peroxide-treated infected red blood cells with high sensitivity and temporal resolution. We also used a targeted LC-MS based thiol metabolomics assay to accurately measure relative changes in cellular thiol levels (including thiol metabolites, glutathione precursors and oxidised and reduced glutathione) within peroxide-treated P. falciparum-infected red blood cells. This work shows that peroxide antimalarials disproportionately alkylate proteins involved in redox homeostasis and that disrupted redox processes are involved in the mechanism of action of these important antimalarials.
Project description:Mechanisms regulating gene expression in malaria parasites are not well understood. Little is known about how this parasite regulates its gene expression during transition from one developmental stage to another and in response to various environmental conditions. Parasites in a diseased host face environments which differ from the static, well adapted in vitro conditions in culture. Parasites thus need to adapt quickly and effectively to these conditions by establishing transcriptional states which is best suited for better survival. With the discovery of natural antisense transcripts (NATs) in this parasite and considering the various proposed mechanisms by which NATs might regulate gene expression, it has been speculated that these might be playing a critical role in gene regulation. We report here the diversity of NATs that exist in this parasite, using isolates taken directly from patients with differing clinical symptoms caused by malaria infection. A total of 797 NATs targeted against annotated loci have been detected using a custom designed strand specific microarray. Out of these, 545 are unique to this study. The majority of NATs were positively correlated with the expression pattern of the sense transcript. Many were found to be differentially regulated in response to disease conditions. Antisense transcripts mapped to a wide variety of biochemical/ metabolic pathways, especially pathways pertaining to the central carbon metabolism and stress related pathways. Our data strongly suggests that a large group of NATs detected here are unannotated transcription units antisense to annotated gene models. The results reveal a previously unknown set of NATs that prevails in this parasite, their differential regulation in disease conditions and mapping to functionally well annotated genes. The results detailed here call for studies to deduce the possible mechanism of action, which would help in understanding the in vivo pathological adaptations of these parasites.
Project description:Comparative genomic hybridization experiments comparing DNA from experimentally evolved yeast strains to DNA from a euploid control.
Project description:This review article aims to investigate the genotypic profiles of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax isolates collected across a wide geographic region and their association with resistance to anti-malarial drugs used in Indonesia. A systematic review was conducted between 1991 and date. Search engines, such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, were used for articles published in English and Indonesian to search the literature. Of the 471 initially identified studies, 61 were selected for 4316 P. falciparum and 1950 P. vivax individual infections. The studies included 23 molecular studies and 38 therapeutic efficacy studies. K76T was the most common pfcrt mutation. K76N (2.1%) was associated with the haplotype CVMNN. By following dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ) therapy, the mutant pfmdr1 alleles 86Y and 1034C were selected. Low prevalence of haplotype N86Y/Y184/D1246Y pfmdr1 reduces susceptibility to AS-AQ. SNP mutation pvmdr1 Y976F reached 96.1% in Papua and East Nusa Tenggara. Polymorphism analysis in the pfdhfr gene revealed 94/111 (84.7%) double mutants S108N/C59R or S108T/A16V in Central Java. The predominant pfdhfr haplotypes (based on alleles 16, 51, 59,108, 164) found in Indonesia were ANCNI, ANCSI, ANRNI, and ANRNL. Some isolates carried A437G (35.3%) or A437G/K540E SNPs (26.5%) in pfdhps. Two novel pfdhps mutant alleles, I588F/G and K540T, were associated with six pfdhps haplotypes. The highest prevalence of pvdhfr quadruple mutation (F57L/S58R/T61M/S117T) (61.8%) was detected in Papua. In pvdhps, the only polymorphism before and after 2008 was 383G mutation with 19% prevalence. There were no mutations in the pfk13 gene reported with validated and candidate or associated k13 mutation. An increased copy number of pfpm2, associated with piperaquine resistance, was found only in cases of reinfection. Meanwhile, mutation of pvk12 and pvpm4 I165V is unlikely associated with ART and PPQ drug resistance. DHA-PPQ is still effective in treating uncomplicated falciparum and vivax malaria. Serious consideration should be given to interrupt local malaria transmission and dynamic patterns of resistance to anti-malarial drugs to modify chemotherapeutic policy treatment strategies. The presence of several changes in pfk13 in the parasite population is of concern and highlights the importance of further evaluation of parasitic ART susceptibility in Indonesia.