The mosquito-borne infectious disease malaria resulted in about 241 million clinical episodes and 627,000 deaths in 2020. In young children and pregnant women living in areas where the disease is endemic, a major cause of death isPlasmodium falciparum, the most virulent, prevalent, and deadly human malaria parasite.
Scientists are keen to understand the mechanisms that regulate gene expression through the different stages ofP. falciparum的生命周期,因为这些知识可以help in the discovery of novel antimalarial therapies. One focus of their research is "lncRNAs," which are long noncoding ribonucleic acid molecules found in cells of eukaryotes -- organisms whose cells have a nucleus. Many noncoding RNAs have been linked to cancer and neurological disorders. LncRNAs are found also to regulate genome structure and gene expression.
A team led by Karine Le Roch, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at the University of California, Riverside, studied the role lncRNAs play inP. falciparumand found that one lncRNA -- lncRNA-ch14 -- partially regulates sexual differentiation and sex determination inP. falciparum.
"We can now target specific lncRNAs to stopP. falciparum's life cycle progression, including sexual differentiation," Le Roch said. "We found evidence that lncRNAs are distributed in distinct cellular compartments inP. falciparum. Depending on their localization, they are found to play important roles in regulating gene expression and the malaria parasite's life cycle progression."
Study results appear inNature Communications.
The research team identified 1,768 lncRNAs inP. falciparum, of which 718 lncRNAs had never before been identified. The team validated that some of these novel lncRNAS are critical for the parasite's life cycle progression.
"Our findings bring new insight into the role of lncRNAs inP. falciparum's capacity to cause malaria, gene regulation, and sexual differentiation," said Le Roch, who directs UCR's Center for Infectious Disease and Vector Research. "This can open up new avenues for targeted approaches towards therapeutic strategies againstP. falciparumthat are aimed at stopping the parasite's life cycle progression and its sexual differentiation and blocking the transmission of the parasite into mosquitoes."
The research was a collaboration with scientists at the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and The Wellcome Sanger Institute.
The research was supported by grants to Le Roch from the National Institutes of Health and UCR.
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Materialsprovided byUniversity of California - Riverside. Original written by Iqbal Pittalwala.Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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