Oxidative stress: production in several processes and organelles during Plasmodium sp development

Abstract

Josefina Duran-Bedolla, Mario Henry Rodriguez , Vianey Saldana-Navor,Selva Rivas-Arancibia, Marco Cerbon, Maria Carmen Rodriguez

Worldwide, malaria parasites are increasingly resistant to available antimalarial drugs, which difficult treatment and control. Alternative drugs could exploit the differences between the hosts and parasite responses to reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Malaria parasites (Plasmodium sp) are exposed to oxidative stress as a result of their metabolic processes and their hosts’ responses to infection, both in vertebrate hosts and vector mosquitoes. Host erythrocyte hemoglobin digestion and heme production within food vacuoles and the synthesis and folding of proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum, as well as the production of the needed energy in the mitochondria are the main sources of oxidative stress. Parasites maintain the redox equilibrium with antioxidant systems (i.e. glutathione-thioredoxin). In this brief review, we discuss the most important processes involved in the production of high levels of free radicals during Plasmodium sp development, along with the parasite’s protective responses and the strategic differences with the vertebrate hosts that are useful for specific antiparasitic drug design.