Amino acid informatics-based nutritional analysis of severe malaria patients in West Africa

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26305016
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Parasitology (including sanitary zoology)
• Research Institution: Jikei University School of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: KANUKA HIROTAKA 東京慈恵会医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (50342770)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 熊谷 正広 東京慈恵会医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (00271304) ; 案浦 健 国立感染症研究所, その他部局等, 研究員 (90407239)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KANOU SHIGEYUKI 独立行政法人国立国際医療研究センター, 研究所, 部長 (60233912)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: マラリア / 病原体 / アミノ酸 / 栄養 / 原虫 / 宿主

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Plasmodium parasite is incapable of most types of amino acid biosynthesis, and acquires the nutrients from hemoglobin digestion and the plasma free amino acids incorporation into erythrocyte. These facts indicated that plasma amino acid must be important for their parasite establishment in infected host. In order to further characterize the interactions between parasite and host, multivariate analysis using statistical modeling of amino acid concentrations (aminogram) of blood of severe malaria patients infected with P. falciparum was performed. This result demonstrated that Plasmodium infection caused drastic alteration in serum aminogram. Furthermore, a subset of amino acids in serum were significantly correlated with component that WHO-defined criteria for severe falciparum malaria. The data suggest that amino acid informatics-based nutriological approach might be crucial to develop novel method to control severe malaria.

Free Research Field

寄生虫学