Clinical Proteomics of the Neglected Human Malarial Parasite Plasmodium vivax

Recent reports highlight the severity and the morbidity of disease caused by the long neglected malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. Due to inherent difficulties in the laboratory-propagation of P. vivax, the biology of this parasite has not been adequately explored. While the proteome of P. falciparum, the causative agent of cerebral malaria, has been extensively explored from several sources, there is limited information on the proteome of P. vivax. We have, for the first time, examined the proteome of P. vivax isolated directly from patients without adaptation to laboratory conditions. We have identified 153 proteins from clinical P. vivax, majority of which do not show homology to any previously known gene products. We also report 29 new proteins that were found to be expressed in P. vivax for the first time. In addition, several proteins previously implicated as anti-malarial targets, were also found in our analysis. Most importantly, we found several unique proteins expressed by P. vivax.This study is an important step in providing insight into physiology of the parasite under clinical settings.近期研究报告凸显了长期被忽视的间日疟原虫（Plasmodium vivax）所引发疾病的严重性与发病率。由于间日疟原虫的实验室传代培养存在固有困难，学界对该寄生虫的生物学特性尚未开展充分探索。尽管引发脑型疟疾（cerebral malaria）的恶性疟原虫（Plasmodium falciparum）的蛋白质组（proteome）已从多种样本来源中得到广泛解析，但针对间日疟原虫蛋白质组的相关研究信息仍十分有限。本研究首次对未经实验室适应培养、直接从患者体内分离的间日疟原虫蛋白质组进行了系统性分析，从临床分离的间日疟原虫样本中鉴定出153种蛋白质，其中绝大多数未与任何已报道的已知基因产物存在同源序列。本研究还首次报道了29种在间日疟原虫中表达的新型蛋白质；此外，多项此前被认定为抗疟靶点的蛋白质也在本次分析中被检出。尤为关键的是，我们发现了多种间日疟原虫特有的表达蛋白质。本研究为解析临床环境下该寄生虫的生理特性迈出了重要一步。