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Host-parasite Interactions Revealed by Plasmodium falciparum Metabolomics
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Host-parasite Interactions Revealed by Plasmodium falciparum Metabolomics

Kellen L Olszewski, Joanne M Morrisey, Daniel Wilinski, James M Burns, Akhil B Vaidya, Joshua D Rabinowitz and Manuel Llinás
Cell host & microbe, v 5(2), pp 191-199
19 Feb 2009
PMID: 19218089
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2009.01.004View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Intracellular pathogens have devised mechanisms to exploit their host cells to ensure their survival and replication. The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum relies on an exchange of metabolites with the host for proliferation. We describe the first mass spectrometry-based metabolomic analysis of the parasite throughout its 48-hour intraerythrocytic developmental cycle. Our results reveal a general modulation of metabolite levels by the parasite, with numerous metabolites varying in phase with the developmental cycle. Others differed from uninfected cells irrespective of the developmental stage. Among these was extracellular arginine, which was specifically converted to ornithine by the parasite. To identify the biochemical basis for this effect, we disrupted the plasmodium arginase gene in the rodent malaria model P. berghei . These parasites were viable but did not convert arginine to ornithine. Our results suggest that systemic arginine depletion by the parasite may be a factor in human malarial hypoargininemia associated with cerebral malaria pathogenesis.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Microbiology
Parasitology
Virology
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