2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
The effect of cholesterol in the blood on malaria parasites viability
| Project/Area Number |
24500992
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Eating habits, studies on eating habits
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| Research Institution | Jichi Medical University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
Usukura Jiro 名古屋大学, 理学部理学研究科構造生物学研究センター, 名誉教授 (30143415)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | マラリア / コレステロール / 脂質膜 / Maurer’s cleft / 電子顕微鏡 / リポタンパク質 / タンパク質輸送 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Intraerythrocytic stages of malaria parasite do not have a de novo biosynthesis pathway for cholesterol. However, lipids and cholesterol are essential to build up the Maurer’s cleft (MC), which has been considered to provide a critical role for protein transportation. It was important to study how parasites can access extracellular cholesterol and lipids and take them into the infected erythrocyte. In addition, revealing 3-dimensional structure of MC with nano-scale level to clarify the details of the final step of parasitized-protein transport to host erythrocyte membrane. We found co-culture system with HepG2 human hepatocyte leads us to conclude malaria parasites take cholesterol and/or fatty acids into parasitized-erythrocyte. Furthermore, main body of MCs elongates fine filaments and connects to the cytoskeletal network of erythrocyte membrane. These results suggest that MC physically transports parasite proteins to the surface of erythrocyte membrane.
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| Free Research Field |
マラリア、生物物理
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