A Study of Factors Affecting the Cultivation of Malarial Parasites in Vitro.
Abstract
The biochemistry of malaria parasites is being studied as a possible means of improving the efficiency of an in vitro serial cultivation system. Parasitization of rhesus monkey red cells by Plasmodium knowlesi causes a large increase of glycolytic flux which persists when the parasite is isolated by immune lysis. Flux through the pentose shunt (PS) is likewise increased. Glucose catabolism varies during growth from ring to schizont. Glycolysis increases during growth from ring to late trophozoite and then decreases during nuclear division. Similar changes occurred in the flux through the primary dehydrogenases of the PS. From the evolution of 14CO2 from parasites incubated with 6- 14C glucose it seems that another oxidative pathway exists. Gel electrophoresis of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) from red cells, infected red cells and parasites shows the existence of species peculiar to the parasites. No such species unique to the parasite could be found in the case of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), but 6-PGD and G6PD from free parasites both had Michaelis constants about ten times less than those of the enzymes from normal red cells. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0771122
Entities
People
- Peter G. Shakespeare
- Peter I. Trigg
Organizations
- Medical Research Council