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Plasmodium falciparum uses vitamin E to avoid oxidative stress
- Source :
- Repositório Institucional da USP (Biblioteca Digital da Produção Intelectual), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), instacron:USP, Parasites & Vectors, Parasites & Vectors, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2017)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Background Plasmodium falciparum is sensitive to oxidative stress in vitro and in vivo, and many drugs such as artemisinin, chloroquine and cercosporin interfere in the parasite’s redox system. To minimize the damage caused by reactive radicals, antioxidant enzymes and their substrates found in parasites and in erythrocytes must be functionally active. It was shown that P. falciparum synthesizes vitamin E and that usnic acid acts as an inhibitor of its biosynthesis. Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that protects polyunsaturated fatty acids from lipid peroxidation, and this activity can be measured by detecting its oxidized product and by evaluating reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Results Here, we demonstrated that ROS levels increased in P. falciparum when vitamin E biosynthesis was inhibited by usnic acid treatment and decreased to basal levels if exogenous vitamin E was added. Furthermore, we used metabolic labelling to demonstrate that vitamin E biosynthesized by the parasite acts as an antioxidant since we could detect its radiolabeled oxidized product. The treatment with chloroquine or cercosporin of the parasites increased the ratio between α-tocopherolquinone and α-tocopherol. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that vitamin E produced endogenously by P. falciparum is active as an antioxidant, probably protecting the parasite from the radicals generated by drugs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13071-017-2402-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Erythrocytes
Antioxidant
medicine.medical_treatment
Plasmodium falciparum
Short Report
Protozoan Proteins
VITAMINA E
medicine.disease_cause
lcsh:Infectious and parasitic diseases
Lipid peroxidation
Antimalarials
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
parasitic diseases
medicine
Animals
Humans
Vitamin E
lcsh:RC109-216
Tocopherol
Malaria, Falciparum
Perylene
Benzofurans
chemistry.chemical_classification
Reactive oxygen species
030102 biochemistry & molecular biology
biology
Usnic acid
Chloroquine
biology.organism_classification
Malaria
Oxidative Stress
030104 developmental biology
Infectious Diseases
Microscopy, Fluorescence
chemistry
Biochemistry
Parasitology
Reactive Oxygen Species
Oxidative stress
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17563305
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Parasites & Vectors
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5d0a9c22967cea00f2f277379c8d9b3e