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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Understanding the Development of Compensatory Pathways in a Mutant Malaria Parasite Harbouring Hypomorphic Allele of Plant-Like Kinases

Understanding the Development of Compensatory Pathways in a Mutant Malaria Parasite Harbouring Hypomorphic Allele of Plant-Like Kinases

Published on: November 22, 2024

Plasmepsins as antimalarial targets.

¹Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, PO Box 911, Museum Avenue, Cardiff ,CF10 3US, Wales, UK. Berry@cf.ac.uk

Current Opinion in Drug Discovery & Development

|August 4, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Aspartic proteinases are key to malaria parasite nutrition and potential drug targets. Plasmodium falciparum has unique proteinases, offering promising avenues for selective antimalarial drug design.

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CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing to Make Conditional Mutants of Human Malaria Parasite P. falciparum

CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing to Make Conditional Mutants of Human Malaria Parasite P. falciparum

Published on: September 18, 2018

Area of Science:

Biochemistry
Parasitology
Drug Discovery

Background:

Aspartic proteinases are essential for malarial parasite nutrition via host protein degradation.
Existing inhibitors for plasmepsin I and II show selectivity issues.
Plasmodium falciparum possesses additional aspartic proteinases, including plasmepsin III and IV.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore novel targets for antimalarial drug development.
To identify potential drug targets with improved selectivity.
To investigate less-characterized aspartic proteinases in Plasmodium falciparum.

Main Methods:

Sequence analysis of Plasmodium falciparum aspartic proteinases.
Comparison of parasite proteinase sequences with human counterparts.
Identification of unique structural features for targeted inhibition.

Main Results:

Plasmodium falciparum encodes at least four aspartic proteinases.
Plasmepsin III and histo-aspartic protein sequences differ significantly from human enzymes.
These distinct sequences suggest potential for selective drug targeting.

Conclusions:

Plasmepsin III and histo-aspartic protein represent promising targets for novel antimalarial drug design.
Targeting these unique parasite enzymes may overcome selectivity problems associated with current inhibitors.
Further research into these proteinases could lead to more effective antimalarial therapies.