title: The activity and inhibition of the food vacuole plasmepsin from the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi.
abstract: The rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi encodes one food vacuole plasmepsin-the aspartic proteinases important in haemoglobin degradation. A recombinant form of this enzyme was found to cleave a variety of peptide substrates and was susceptible to a selection of naturally occurring and synthetic inhibitors, displaying an inhibition profile distinct from that of aspartic proteinases from other malaria parasites. In addition, inhibitors of HIV proteinase that kill P. chabaudi in vivo were also inhibitors of this new plasmepsin. P. chabaudi is a widely used model for human malaria species and, therefore, the characterisation of this plasmepsin is an important contribution towards understanding its biology.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação, Departamento de Biotecnologia, UTPAM, Edifício F, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Tiago M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Domingos
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wyatt
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002863:Chromogenic Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D007700:Kinetics; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016788:Plasmodium chabaudi / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D002863:Chromogenic Compounds; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases; C089643:plasmepsin