For Plasmodium falciparum related malaria (B50), one of the outstanding host factors for the development of severe disease is the ABO blood group of malaria patients, where blood group O reduces the probability of severe disease as compared to individuals of groups A, B, or AB.
Ample evidence suggesting that carriers of hemoglobin S and C are protected from life-threatening malaria, but little is known about the underlying biochemical mechanisms at the single cell level. Using nano-focused scanning X-ray fluorescence microscopy, we quantify the spatial distribution of individual elements in subcellular compartments, including Fe, S, P, Zn, and Cu, in Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes carrying the wild type or variant hemoglobins.
Salinipostin A (Sal A) is a potent antiplasmodial marine natural product with an undefined mechanism of action. Using a Sal A-derived activity-based probe, we identify its targets in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. All of the identified proteins contain α/β serine hydrolase domains and several are essential for parasite growth. One of the essential targets displays a high degree of homology to human monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) and is able to process lipid esters including a MAGL acylglyceride substrate.
Antimalarial drug resistance in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite poses a constant challenge for drug development. To mitigate this risk, new antimalarial medicines should be developed as fixed-dose combinations. Assessing the pharmacodynamic interactions of potential antimalarial drug combination partners during early phases of development is essential in developing the targeted parasitological and clinical profile of the final drug product.
The development of a blood-stage malaria vaccine has largely focused on the subunit approach. However, the limited success of this strategy, mainly due to antigenic polymorphism and the failure to maintain potent parasite-specific immune responses, indicates that other approaches must be considered. Whole parasite (WP) vaccines offer many advantages over sub-units; they represent every antigen on the organism, thus limiting the effects of antigenic polymorphism, and similarly they compensate for individual Immune-Response (Ir) gene-regulated non-responsiveness to any particular antigen. From a development perspective, they negate the need to identify and compare the relative efficacies of individual candidate antigens. WP vaccines induce protective immunity that is largely cell-mediated.
Plasmodium falciparum transmission depends on mature gametocytes that can be ingested by mosquitoes taking a bloodmeal on human skin. Although gametocyte skin sequestration has long been hypothesized as important contributor to efficient malaria transmission, this has never been formally tested.
The continuous emergence of resistance to the available drugs poses major constraints in the development of effective therapeutics against Malaria. The Malaria drug resistance has been attributed to be the manifestation of numerous factors. For example, mutations in the parasite transporter protein acetyl-CoA transporter (Pfact) can remarkably affect its uptake affinity for a drug molecule against malaria, and hence enhance its susceptibility to resistance.
This study confirms that in malaria endemic settings, sub-patent malaria infections among blood donors are prevalent.
PMT, like the pan-specific LDH biomarker used in RDT tests, is both soluble, present at comparable concentrations in the parasite and constitutes a promising antimalarial drug target.
A substantial difference in prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections observed in Kiwangwa ward underpins the use of molecular tools in malaria surveillance aiming at estimating prevalence and transmission.
