The malaria parasite progressively dismantles the host erythrocyte cytoskeleton for efficient egress.

Plasmodium falciparum is an obligate intracellular pathogen responsible for worldwide morbidity and mortality. This parasite establishes a parasitophorous vacuole within infected red blood cells wherein it differentiates into multiple daughter cells that must rupture their host cells to continue another infectious cycle. Using atomic force microscopy, we establish that progressive macrostructural changes occur to the host cell cytoskeleton during the last 15 h of the erythrocytic life cycle. We used a comparative proteomics approach to determine changes in the membrane proteome of infected red blood cells during the final steps of parasite development that lead to egress. Mass spectrometry-based analysis comparing the red blood cell membrane proteome in uninfected red blood cells to that of infected red blood cells and postrupture vesicles highlighted two temporally distinct events; (Hay, S. I., et al. (2009). A world malaria map: Plasmodium falciparum endemicity in 2007. PLoS Med. 6, e1000048) the striking loss of cytoskeletal adaptor proteins that are part of the junctional complex, including α/ß-adducin and tropomyosin, correlating temporally with the emergence of large holes in the cytoskeleton seen by AFM as early ~35 h postinvasion, and (Maier, A. G., et al. (2008) Exported proteins required for virulence and rigidity of Plasmodium falciparum-infected human erythrocytes. Cell 134, 48-61) large-scale proteolysis of the cytoskeleton during rupture ~48 h postinvasion, mediated by host calpain-1. We thus propose a sequential mechanism whereby parasites first remove a selected set of cytoskeletal adaptor proteins to weaken the host membrane and then use host calpain-1 to dismantle the remaining cytoskeleton, leading to red blood cell membrane collapse and parasite release.

Discovery of potent small-molecule inhibitors of multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum using a novel miniaturized high-throughput luciferase-based assay.

Malaria is a global health problem that causes significant mortality and morbidity, with more than 1 million deaths per year caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Most antimalarial drugs face decreased efficacy due to the emergence of resistant parasites, which necessitates the discovery of new drugs. To identify new antimalarials, we developed an automated 384-well plate screening assay using P. falciparum parasites that stably express cytoplasmic firefly luciferase. After initial optimization, we tested two different types of compound libraries: known bioactive collections (Library of Pharmacologically Active Compounds [LOPAC] and the library from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [NINDS]) and a library of uncharacterized compounds (ChemBridge). A total of 12,320 compounds were screened at 5.5 microM. Selecting only compounds that reduced parasite growth by 85% resulted in 33 hits from the combined bioactive collection and 130 hits from the ChemBridge library. Fifteen novel drug-like compounds from the bioactive collection were found to be active against P. falciparum. Twelve new chemical scaffolds were found from the ChemBridge hits, the most potent of which was a series based on the 1,4-naphthoquinone scaffold, which is structurally similar to the FDA-approved antimalarial atovaquone. However, in contrast to atovaquone, which acts to inhibit the bc(1) complex and block the electron transport chain in parasite mitochondria, we have determined that our new 1,4-napthoquinones act in a novel, non-bc(1)-dependent mechanism and remain potent against atovaquone- and chloroquine-resistant parasites. Ultimately, this study may provide new probes to understand the molecular details of the malaria life cycle and to identify new antimalarials.

Apicomplexan parasites co-opt host calpains to facilitate their escape from infected cells.

Apicomplexan parasites, including Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii (the causative agents of malaria and toxoplasmosis, respectively), are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. These pathogenic protozoa replicate within an intracellular vacuole inside of infected host cells, from which they must escape to initiate a new lytic cycle. By integrating cell biological, pharmacological, and genetic approaches, we provide evidence that both Plasmodium and Toxoplasma hijack host cell calpain proteases to facilitate parasite egress. Immunodepletion or inhibition of calpain-1 in hypotonically lysed and resealed erythrocytes prevented the escape of P. falciparum parasites, which was restored by adding purified calpain-1. Similarly, efficient egress of T. gondii from mammalian fibroblasts was blocked by either small interfering RNA-mediated suppression or genetic deletion of calpain activity and could be restored by genetic complementation.