9 research outputs found
Gibberellin Biosynthetic Inhibitors Make Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum Cells Swell and Rupture to Death
Malaria remains as one of the most devastating infectious disease, and continues to exact an enormous toll in medical cost and days of labor lost especially in the tropics. Effective malaria control and eventual eradication remain a huge challenge, with efficacious antimalarials as important intervention/management tool. Clearly new alternative drugs that are more affordable and with fewer side effects are desirable. After preliminary in vitro assays with plant growth regulators and inhibitors, here, we focus on biosynthetic inhibitors of gibberellin, a plant hormone with many important roles in plant growth, and show their inhibitory effect on the growth of both apicomplexa, Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii. Treatment of P. falciparum cultures with the gibberellin biosynthetic inhibitors resulted in marked morphological changes that can be reversed to a certain degree under hyperosmotic environment. These unique observations suggest that changes in the parasite membrane permeability may explain the pleiotropic effects observed within the intracellular parasites
Clues to Evolution of the SERA Multigene Family in 18 Plasmodium Species
SERA gene sequences were newly determined from 11 primate
Plasmodium species including two human parasites,
P. ovale and P. malariae, and the
evolutionary history of SERA genes was analyzed together with 7 known species.
All have one each of Group I to III cysteine-type SERA genes and varying number
of Group IV serine-type SERA genes in tandem cluster. Notably, Group IV SERA
genes were ascertained in all mammalian parasite lineages; and in two primate
parasite lineages gene events such as duplication, truncation, fragmentation and
gene loss occurred at high frequency in a manner that mimics the birth-and-death
evolution model. Transcription profile of individual SERA genes varied greatly
among rodent and monkey parasites. Results support the lineage-specific
evolution of the Plasmodium SERA gene family. These findings
provide further impetus for studies that could clarify/provide proof-of-concept
that duplications of SERA genes were associated with the parasites'
expansion of host range and the evolutionary conundrums of multigene families in
Plasmodium