IP3 role in signal transduction and function of heme oxygenase in Plasmodium falciparum.

Author(s)

Eduardo Alves dos Santos

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI)
• Defense date: 2013-08-30

Examining board members

Celia Regina da Silva Garcia; Claudio Romero Farias Marinho; Pedro Lagerblad de Oliveira; Santuza Maria Ribeiro Teixeira; Carsten Wrenger

• Advisor: Celia Regina da Silva Garcia

Abstract

We demonstrate that P. falciparum within the erythrocyte is able to use the cellular signaling pathway dependent on inositol triphosphate (IP3). We investigated the intracellular Ca2+ stores sensitive to IP3 and explore parasite sensitivity to IP3 at different stages in the intraerythrocytic cycle. We demonstrate that melatonin hormone is capable of increasing the IP3 concentration on this parasite. Using an IP3 affinity column, we tried to find candidate proteins for IP3 receptor in P. falciparum. This work also studies the enzyme P. falciparum heme oxygenase (PfHO). We tested the ability of this enzyme to convert biliverdin (BV) in bilirubin (BR), the modulation of this activity in the presence of various metalloprotoporphyrins and the potential of these compounds as antimalarials. We reported that biliverdin is capable of modulating the intraerythrocytic cycle of P. falciparum and present P. falciparum enolase as candidate for BV sensor on this parasite. (AU)