Nucleic acid precursor synthesis by Plasmodium lophurae parasitizing chicken erythrocytes

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells selectively takes up serum proteins that affect host pathogenicity

Background

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan that develops in red blood cells (RBCs) and requires various host factors. For its development in RBCs, nutrients not only from the RBC cytosol but also from the extracellular milieu must be acquired. Although the utilization of host nutrients by P. falciparum has been extensively analysed, only a few studies have reported its utilization of host serum proteins. Hence, the aim of the current study was to comprehensively identify host serum proteins taken up by P. falciparum parasites and to elucidate their role in pathogenesis.

Methods

Plasmodium falciparum was cultured with human serum in vitro. Uptake of serum proteins by parasites was comprehensively determined via shotgun liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry and western blotting. The calcium ion concentration in serum was also evaluated, and coagulation activity of the parasite lysate was assessed.

Results

Three proteins, vitamin K-dependent protein S, prothrombin, and vitronectin, were selectively internalized under sufficient Ca²⁺ levels in the culture medium. The uptake of these proteins was initiated before DNA replication, and increased during the trophozoite and schizont stages, irrespective of the assembly/disassembly of actin filaments. Coagulation assay revealed that prothrombin was activated and thereby induced blood coagulation.

Conclusions

Serum proteins were taken up by parasites under culture conditions with sufficient Ca²⁺ levels. This uptake phenomenon was associated with their pathogenicity.

Disruption of de Novo Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Biosynthesis Abolishes Virulence in Cryptococcus neoformans

Opportunistic fungal pathogens such as Cryptococcus neoformans are a growing cause of morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised populations worldwide. To address the current paucity of antifungal therapeutic agents, further research into fungal-specific drug targets is required. Adenylosuccinate synthetase (AdSS) is a crucial enzyme in the adeosine triphosphate (ATP) biosynthetic pathway, catalyzing the formation of adenylosuccinate from inosine monophosphate and aspartate. We have investigated the potential of this enzyme as an antifungal drug target, finding that loss of function results in adenine auxotrophy in C. neoformans, as well as complete loss of virulence in a murine model. Cryptococcal AdSS was expressed and purified in Escherichia coli and the enzyme's crystal structure determined, the first example of a structure of this enzyme from fungi. Together with enzyme kinetic studies, this structural information enabled comparison of the fungal enzyme with the human orthologue and revealed species-specific differences potentially exploitable via rational drug design. These results validate AdSS as a promising antifungal drug target and lay a foundation for future in silico and in vitro screens for novel antifungal compounds.

Host reticulocytes provide metabolic reservoirs that can be exploited by malaria parasites

Human malaria parasites proliferate in different erythroid cell types during infection. Whilst Plasmodium vivax exhibits a strong preference for immature reticulocytes, the more pathogenic P. falciparum primarily infects mature erythrocytes. In order to assess if these two cell types offer different growth conditions and relate them to parasite preference, we compared the metabolomes of human and rodent reticulocytes with those of their mature erythrocyte counterparts. Reticulocytes were found to have a more complex, enriched metabolic profile than mature erythrocytes and a higher level of metabolic overlap between reticulocyte resident parasite stages and their host cell. This redundancy was assessed by generating a panel of mutants of the rodent malaria parasite P. berghei with defects in intermediary carbon metabolism (ICM) and pyrimidine biosynthesis known to be important for P. falciparum growth and survival in vitro in mature erythrocytes. P. berghei ICM mutants (pbpepc-, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and pbmdh-, malate dehydrogenase) multiplied in reticulocytes and committed to sexual development like wild type parasites. However, P. berghei pyrimidine biosynthesis mutants (pboprt-, orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and pbompdc-, orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase) were restricted to growth in the youngest forms of reticulocytes and had a severe slow growth phenotype in part resulting from reduced merozoite production. The pbpepc-, pboprt- and pbompdc- mutants retained virulence in mice implying that malaria parasites can partially salvage pyrimidines but failed to complete differentiation to various stages in mosquitoes. These findings suggest that species-specific differences in Plasmodium host cell tropism result in marked differences in the necessity for parasite intrinsic metabolism. These data have implications for drug design when targeting mature erythrocyte or reticulocyte resident parasites.

[How does the apicomplexan parasite Theileria control host cell identity?]

Infectious agents, like bacteria or virus, are responsible for a large number of pathologies in mammals. Microbes have developed mechanisms for interacting with host cell pathways and hijacking cellular machinery to change the phenotypic state. In this review, we focus on an interesting apicomplexan parasite called Theileria. Infection by the tick-transmitted T. annulata parasite causes Tropical Theileriosis in North Africa and Asia, and the related T. parva parasite causes East Coast Fever in Sub-Saharan Africa. This parasite is the only eukaryote known to induce the transformation of its mammalian host cells. Indeed, T. annulata and T. parva infect bovine leukocytes leading to transforming phenotypes, which partially mirror human lymphoma pathologies. Theileria infection causes hyperproliferation, invasiveness and escape from apoptosis, presumably through the manipulation of host cellular pathways. Several host-signaling mechanisms have been implicated. Here we describe the mechanisms involved in parasite-induced transformation phenotypes.

Characterization of adenine phosphoribosyltransferase from the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

Because of their inability to synthesize purines de novo, malaria parasites rely on purine phosphoribosyltransferases (PRTases) to convert purine bases salvaged from the host cell (the erythrocyte) into the corresponding purine nucleoside monophosphates. Our studies with late trophozoites of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, showed that virtually all of the purine PRTase activity is accounted for by two distinct enzymes. One enzyme utilizes hypoxanthine, guanine and xanthine (Queen, S.A., Vander Jagt, D. and Reyes, P. (1988) Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 30, 123-134). The second enzyme utilizes only adenine and is the subject of this paper. This latter enzyme exhibits a biphasic pH-activity profile and is moderately to weakly inhibited by several divalent metal ions. Several of the properties of the P. falciparum enzyme were found to differ significantly from those of human erythrocyte adenine PRTase. (1) The molecular weight (18,000) of the parasite enzyme is smaller than that of the host cell enzyme. (2) The parasite enzyme, unlike the erythrocyte enzyme, is not significantly inhibited by sulfhydryl reagents. (3) 6-Mercaptopurine and 2,6-diaminopurine proved to be competitive inhibitors of the parasite enzyme (Ki 0.70 and 1.0 mM, respectively); on the other hand, the human enzyme is not inhibited by these agents. (4) The Km for adenine (0.80 microM) and 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (0.70 microM) displayed by the parasite enzyme are significantly smaller than the corresponding Km values shown by the erythrocyte enzyme. These distinctions between the parasite and host enzymes point to the possibility that adenine PRTase of P. falciparum may represent a potential target for chemotherapeutic attack.

Purine metabolism by the avian malarial parasite Plasmodium lophurae

Extracts of normal duckling erythrocytes catabolized AMP to IMP, inosine and hypoxanthine; adenosine and adenine were not formed from AMP. When erythrocyte-free Plasmodium lophurae, prepared by antibody lysis, were incubated in the presence of [14C]hypoxanthine approximately 60% of the label was recovered as purine nucleotides and there was not evidence of extracellular alteration of added hypoxanthine. However, when adenosine was added to suspensions of antibody- or saponin-prepared parasites extensive conversion to inosine and hypoxanthine occurred. This conversion was found to be the result of parasite lysis with release of cytosolic purine salvage pathway enzymes; plasmodial surface membrane ecto-enzymes were not responsible for adenosine catabolism. It appears that in vivo the intracellular plasmodium utilizes the normal erythrocytic process of purine turnover to avail itself of hypoxanthine, the red cell's end product, and at the same time the parasite avoids direct competition for adenosine essential to erythrocyte survival. Since the blood plasma of infected ducklings contained increased amounts of hypoxanthine it is possible that P. lophurae also utilizes this as a purine source.

Purine metabolizing enzymes of Plasmodium lophurae and its host cell, the duckling (Anas domesticus) erythrocyte

Adenosine kinase, adenosine deaminase, hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase, inosine-nucleoside phosphorylase, 5'-AMP deaminase and 5'-IMP nucleotidase were identified in cell-free extracts of duckling erythrocytes; no evidence for 5'-AMP nucleotidase and xanthine oxidase activity was found. The Km values for the duckling red cell enzymes were similar to those reported for human erythrocytes. Plasmodium lophurae extracts demonstrated similar enzyme activities except for 5'-AMP deaminase and 5'-IMP nucleotidase which were absent. It is proposed that during infection erythrocytic AMP is catabolized to IMP, inosine and hypoxanthine; the hypoxanthine is taken up by the plasmodium, utilized to form IMP, and this in turn is converted into adenine and guanine nucleotides.