Quantitative profiling of transcription factors of human malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum.

Abstract

Malaria is one of the major lethal infectious diseases and is caused by parasitic protozoa of genus Plasmodium. Many studies were done on the quantitative characterizing transcriptions factors of the P. falciparum whole parasite but none focusing on the parasite nuclei. In this study, P. falciparum nuclei were isolated and 2D-DIGE was used to identify new transcription factors that can be further explored for their role in parasite growth and development. Trophozoite-stage and Schizont-stage parasites were analyzed and, with Decyder 2D software, expression between cytoplamic and nuclear proteins were compared. 415 protein spots with significant change in abundance of ANOVA P≤ 0.01were identified. 63 spots with more than 1.5 fold abundance changes were excised from the silver-stained gel for MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Proteins identified include helicase, 26S Proteasome, elongation factor-1, several heat shock proteins and actin. Possibly due to post-translational modification, actin was represented by more than one isoform on the gel. In addition, the proteins identified were found to be expressed in both parasite stages. In conclusion, the results provide the first knowledge of nuclear proteins present in P.falciparum and it could be a possible resource for identifying new drug target for anti-malaria drug.