Hansen, Daniel Aaen

Malaria er en livstruende sygdom som findes i tropiske og subtropiske egne. Hvert år dør 781 000 individer som følge af sygdommen; de fleste af dem er børn under fem års alderen i Afrika syd for Sahara. Den alvorligste form for malaria i mennesker er forårsaget af parasitten Plasmodium falciparum , der er emnet for første del af denne afhandling.PfEMP1 proteinet, der kodes for af den meget variablevar gen familie er vigtig for parasittens sygdomsfremkaldende egenskaber og dens evne til at undvige immunforsvaret. Vi analyserede og klassificerede disse gener baseret på deres opstrøms sekvens i syv Plasmodium falciparum kloner. Vi viser at mængden af nukleotid diversitet er lige så stort inden for hver klon som den er mellem klonerne.DNA methylering er en vigtig epigenetisk markør i mange eukaryote arter. Vi studerer DNA methylering i malaria parasitten Plasmodium falciparum . Dette arbejde er stadig i gang og vil blive introduceret her.En af de største bekymringer vedrørende behandlingen af malaria er den kontinuerte udvikling af resistens over for de eksisterende lægemidler. Derfor vil der blive brug for nye lægemidler i fremtiden. ApiAP2 proteinerne er en nyligt opdaget familie af mulige transkriptions-faktorer. Da de måske har vigtige regulatoriske funktioner i parasitten, kan de være brugbare mål for nye lægemidler. Vi studerer et af disse proteiner og beskriver vores arbejde med at finde små stoffer, der kan påvirke dens evne til at binde DNA.MHC proteiners specifikke binding af korte peptider er en vigtig led i aktiveringen af et immun respons mod forskellige pathogener. Et sæt af peptider, der kan binde et specifikt MHC molekyle kan karakteriseres ved et bindings motiv. I anden del af denne afhandling udvikler vi en algoritme, der kan skelne mellem adskillige bindings motiver i en blanding af peptider fra forskellige motiver.Malaria is a life threatening disease found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Each year it kills 781 000 individuals; most of them are children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa. The most severe form of malaria in humans is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which is the subject of the first part of this thesis.The PfEMP1 protein which is encoded by the highly variablevargene family is important in the pathogenesis and immune evasion of malaria parasites. We analyzed and classified these genes based on the upstream sequence in sevenPlasmodium falciparumclones. We show that the amount of nucleotide diversity is just as big within each clone as it is between the clones.DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark in many eukaryotic species. We are studying DNA methylation in the malaria parasitePlasmodium falciparum. The work is still in progress and will be introduced here.One of the biggest concerns regarding the treatment of malaria is the continued development of resistance to existing drugs. Therefore, new drugs will be needed in the future. The ApiAP2 proteins are a recently discovered family of putative transcription factors. As they might perform important regulatory functions in the parasite, they could be useful as drug targets. Here, we study one of these proteins and describe our work on identifying small compounds that can interfere with its DNA binding abilities.Specific binding of short peptides by proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is an important event in the activation of immune responses to various pathogens. The set of peptides that can bind a specific MHC molecule can be characterized by a binding motif. In the second part of this thesis, we developed an algorithm that can distinguish several binding motifs within a mixture of peptides from different motifs

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Bioinformatics approaches to malaria

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Bioinformatics approaches to malaria

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Online Research Database In Technology