Peroxide Antimalarial Drugs Target Redox Homeostasis in Plasmodium falciparum Infected Red Blood Cells.

Plasmodium falciparum causes the most lethal form of malaria. Peroxide antimalarials based on artemisinin underpin the frontline treatments for malaria, but artemisinin resistance is rapidly spreading. Synthetic peroxide antimalarials, known as ozonides, are in clinical development and offer a potential alternative. Here, we used chemoproteomics to investigate the protein alkylation targets of artemisinin and ozonide probes, including an analogue of the ozonide clinical candidate, artefenomel. We greatly expanded the list of proteins alkylated by peroxide antimalarials and identified significant enrichment of redox-related proteins for both artemisinins and ozonides. Disrupted redox homeostasis was confirmed by dynamic live imaging of the glutathione redox potential using a genetically encoded redox-sensitive fluorescence-based biosensor. Targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based thiol metabolomics also confirmed changes in cellular thiol levels. This work shows that peroxide antimalarials disproportionately alkylate proteins involved in redox homeostasis and that disrupted redox processes are involved in the mechanism of action of these important antimalarials.

Hypoxic preconditioning produces differential expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and its regulatory enzyme HIF prolyl hydroxylase 2 in neonatal rat brain.

Hypoxic preconditioning can protect the brain against a subsequent damaging ischaemic insult. Mild hypoxia alone seems not sufficient to cause neuronal injury, but can induce changes in gene expression and intracellular signalling pathways and the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF-1) is a key modulator of these genes. Recently, a family of HIF prolyl hydroxylase enzymes (PHDs) has been shown to regulate HIF-1 function by controlling its degradation. Since PHD-2 is thought to be the predominant isoform which regulates HIF-1, we have investigated whether preconditioning with hypoxia can affect levels of PHD-2 and HIF-1alpha proteins to elucidate roles for the HIF-1/PHD-2 system in the neuroprotection conferred by hypoxic preconditioning. Sprague-Dawley rats (postnatal Day 6 (p6)) were exposed to preconditioning with hypoxia (3 h, 8% oxygen) or normoxia (3 h, room air) at various times (0, 0.5, 2, 4, 16 and 24 h) after reoxygenation, brains were obtained for Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses of PHD-2 and HIF-1alpha proteins. Western blotting studies demonstrate a significant increase in the expression of PHD-2 ( approximately 1.8-2-fold increase, at 0.5, 16 and 24 h after reoxygenation; p < 0.01) and HIF-1alpha (approximately 1.7-fold increase immediately after hypoxia; p < 0.05) proteins following hypoxic preconditioning relative to normoxic control tissue. Similar results were observed in immunohistochemical studies examining PHD-2 and HIF-1alpha proteins. Our study demonstrated for the first time that in vivo exposure to systemic hypoxia elevates the expression of PHD-2 protein in brain and it is likely that enhancing HIF-1 function by inhibition of PHD activity is involved in the protective effect conferred by hypoxic preconditioning in neonatal rat brain.