Parasitology articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    The bicyclic azetidines, a class of potent, well-tolerated antimalarial compounds that is active against multiple stages of the Plasmodium life-cycle, has been discovered following screens against libraries of compounds reminiscent of natural products.

    • Nobutaka Kato
    • , Eamon Comer
    •  & Stuart L. Schreiber

  • Letter |

    A selective inhibitor of the kinetoplastid proteasome (GNF6702) is identified that is highly efficacious in vivo, clearing the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness from mice, highlighting the possibility of developing a single class of drugs for these neglected diseases.

    • Shilpi Khare
    • , Advait S. Nagle
    •  & Frantisek Supek

  • News & Views |

    Study of the diarrhoea-causing pathogen Cryptosporidium has been hindered by a lack of genetic-modification and culture tools. A description of genome editing and propagation methods for the parasite changes this picture. See Letter p.477

    • Stephen M. Beverley

  • Letter |

    Cryptosporidium is an important cause of diarrhoeal disease in young children but until now it has been difficult to study; here, the parasite is genetically modified, paving the way for in-depth investigation and the development of effective treatments.

    • Sumiti Vinayak
    • , Mattie C. Pawlowic
    •  & Boris Striepen

  • News & Views |

    An RNA-interference screen has identified the protein CD55, expressed on the surface of red blood cells, as an essential receptor for infection of the cells by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

    • Wai-Hong Tham
    •  & Alexander T. Kennedy

  • Letter |

    Artemisinins are key anti-malarial drugs, but artemisinin resistance has been increasing; this study identifies the molecular target of artemisinins as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and increase of the lipid product phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate induces resistance in Plasmodium falciparum.

    • Alassane Mbengue
    • , Souvik Bhattacharjee
    •  & Kasturi Haldar

  • Letter |

    Parasites of the Theileria genus infect cattle and transform their host cells, a transformation that can be reversed by treatment with the drug buparvaquone; here, a Theileria homologue of the peptidyl-prolyl isomerase PIN1 is shown to be secreted into the host cell, where it promotes transformation and can be directly inhibited by buparvaquone.

    • J. Marsolier
    • , M. Perichon
    •  & J. B. Weitzman

  • News & Views |

    Intensive longitudinal sampling of malaria mosquitoes in the African semi-desert reveals that three morphologically indistinguishable species have distinctive strategies for surviving the dry season. See Letter p.387

    • Nora J. Besansky

  • Letter |

    Reticulocyte-binding protein homologue 5 (PfRH5) of Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite, is known to be necessary for red blood cell invasion, making PfRH5 a promising vaccine candidate; here the X-ray crystallographic structure of PfRH5 in complex with basigin and with inhibitory antibodies is determined.

    • Katherine E. Wright
    • , Kathryn A. Hjerrild
    •  & Matthew K. Higgins

  • Letter |

    Plasmodium parasites, the causative agent of malaria, infect and remodel red blood cells by exporting hundreds of proteins into the red blood cell cytosol, a topological conundrum given that the parasite resides in a compartment known as the parasitophorous vacuole; here a dihydrofolate-reductase-based destabilization domain approach is used to inactivate HSP101, part of the Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins, and to demonstrate that it is required for the secretion of all classes of exported Plasmodium proteins.

    • Josh R. Beck
    • , Vasant Muralidharan
    •  & Daniel E. Goldberg

  • News & Views |

    Two studies provide evidence that the protein complex PTEX is needed for export of malaria-parasite proteins into the cytoplasm of infected cells, and that such export is essential for parasite survival. See Letters p.587 & p.592

    • Sanjay A. Desai
    •  & Louis H. Miller

  • News & Views |

    Trogocytosis, a process in which one cell 'takes a bite' out of another, had previously been seen only in immune cells. But the phenomenon has now been found in Entamoeba histolytica, as a way for this parasite to kill host cells. See Letter p.526

    • Nancy Guillén

  • Letter |

    Entamoeba histolytica, the causative agent of fatal diarrhoeal disease in children in the developing world, is shown here to kill human cells by biting off and ingesting pieces of cells, in a process reminiscent of the trogocytosis seen between immune cells; ingestion of bites is required for killing and this mechanism is used both in tissue culture and during invasion of intestinal explants.

    • Katherine S. Ralston
    • , Michael D. Solga
    •  & William A. Petri Jr

  • Letter |

    Malaria parasites must produce gametocytes for transmission to the mosquito vector, although the molecular mechanisms underlying commitment to gametocyte production remain unclear; here this process is found to be controlled by PbAP2-G, a member of the ApiAP2 family of DNA-binding proteins, in the rodent-infecting Plasmodium berghei parasite.

    • Abhinav Sinha
    • , Katie R. Hughes
    •  & Andrew P. Waters

  • News & Views |

    A series of in vitro, genomic, ecological and epidemiological studies has pinpointed gene mutations in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that play a key part in resistance to artemisinin-based antimalarial drugs. See Article p.50

    • Christopher V. Plowe

  • Letter |

    Here a genome-wide RNAi library screen is used to identify components of the signalling pathway that allow transformation of Trypanosoma brucei spp., the protozoan parasite responsible for important human and livestock diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, from proliferative slender forms to arrested stumpy forms which are transmitted to the tsetse fly vector.

    • Binny M. Mony
    • , Paula MacGregor
    •  & Keith Matthews

  • Article |

    The lipid kinase phosphatidylinositol-4-OH kinase (PI(4)K) is identified as a target of the imidazopyrazines, a new antimalarial compound class that can inhibit several Plasmodium species at each stage of the parasite life cycle; the imidazopyrazines exert their inhibitory action by interacting with the ATP-binding pocket of PI(4)K.

    • Case W. McNamara
    • , Marcus C. S. Lee
    •  & Elizabeth A. Winzeler

  • News Feature |

    Several African nations could strike a major blow against malaria by sacrificing the efficacy of some older drugs. Can they make it work?

    • Amy Maxmen

  • News & Views |

    Pathogens and their hosts engage in perpetual molecular arms races. In one such evolutionary stand-off, the protagonists are trypanosome parasites and a human immune complex based on a high-density lipoprotein. See Letter p.430

    • Jayne Raper
    •  & David J. Friedman

  • Letter |

    This study shows that Trypanosoma brucei gambiense resists trypanolytic factors (TLFs) in a multifactorial manner, relying on a hydrophobic β-sheet of the TgsGP glycoprotein, which prevents APOL1 toxicity and induces membrane stiffening, as well as a reduction in sensitivity to APOL1 requiring cysteine protease activity and TLF-1 receptor inactivation owing to a single amino acid substitution.

    • Pierrick Uzureau
    • , Sophie Uzureau
    •  & Etienne Pays

  • News & Views Forum |

    Research shows how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum manipulates the expression of its var genes to avoid recognition by the host immune system. Four experts comment on the implications of these results for our understanding of gene regulation in general and the development of antimalaria vaccines. See Letter p.223

    • Swaminathan Venkatesh
    • , Jerry L. Workman
    •  & Maria Teresa Bejarano

  • News & Views |

    Malaria parasites switch between developmental stages to facilitate their transmission to the mosquito vector. This switch seems to be initiated by parasite-to-parasite communication through membrane-bound vesicles.

    • Leann Tilley
    •  & Malcolm McConville

  • Letter |

    The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum escapes immune detection by expressing one of 60 antigenically distinct var genes at any one time during the course of infection: here it is shown that the P. falciparum protein PfSETvs has a key role in var gene silencing through the trimethylation of histone H3K36.

    • Lubin Jiang
    • , Jianbing Mu
    •  & Louis H. Miller

  • News & Views |

    Whole-genome sequencing of human malaria parasites has revealed genomic regions that are associated with resistance to artemisinin-based drugs. The findings may help to explain the origin and spread of this worrying trend.

    • A. Taylor Bright
    •  & Elizabeth A. Winzeler

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