Preliminary Proteomics Study of Dihydroartemisinin Action in Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract

The multidrug resistance Plasmodium falciparum is a major health problem in the malaria endemic areas of the world including Thailand.  To cope with the situation, development of effective and safe antimalarial drugs is urgently required.  Artemisinin and derivatives (dihydroartemisinin, artemeter, artesunate, arteether) are currently the mainstay in chemotherapy of multidrug resistance falciparum malaria. The objective of the study was to observe the protein patterns of P. falciparum following exposure to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) for 5 hours.  Proteins were extracted from G112 P. falciparum clone in the presence (3 nM) and absence (control) of DHA.  Proteins were separated by two-dimension gel electrophoresis and stained with silver stain. Analysis and comparison of protein patterns between DHA-exposed and non-exposed parasite was done by PDQuest Program.  Results showed that approximately 63 spots of protein patterns were similar, but the number of protein spots was markedly lower in the exposed parasite (99 spots) comparing to non-exposed parasite (147 spots).