T4_bisthiazolium effect on the malaria parasite transcriptome

Choline analogs represent a novel class of antimalarial compounds with strong potency against drug-sensitive and resistant P. falciparum. Although, these drugs are presumed to target proteins within lipid biosynthesis pathways; their complete mechanism of action and the parasite’s compensatory response remain to be elucidated. We have applied transcriptional profiling to characterize the global response to the choline analog T4 during the P. falciparum intraerythrocytic life cycle Keywords: Trascriptome analysis of Plasmodium falciparum in response to external stimuli using the affymetrix platform GPL3575 Parasites were incubated in complete medium at 8 % parasitaemia and 5 % haematocrit and treated with different concentration of T4. Drug was added at 125nM on a mixed or synchronized 25ml cultures. Parasites were returned to the incubator for 30 minutes, 5, 24, 30 or 36 hours before total RNA extraction. Transcriptome was analysed and compared between treated and nontreated cultures. Changes observed in the transcriptome were also further compared with the published ife cycle database (Le Roch et al.,Science, 2003)