Today, malaria remains the biggest killer of the third world, killing over a million people every year, despite intensive research efforts. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase II (CPSII) is the first and rate-limiting enzyme in pyrimidine biosynthesis of Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria. PfCPSII is a unique target for DNAzyme therapy due to the presence of two unique insertion sequences of 700bp and 1800bp that exist within the mature mRNA transcript. Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous delivery of nucleic acids such as ribozymes and DNAzymes targeting PfCPSII insertion II effectively inhibited the growth of P. falciparum cultures at sub-micromolar levels. The objective of this study was to investigate the insertion sequences within CPSII from rodent malaria species P. berghei, P. chabaudi and P. yoelii in order to further validate the insertions as DNAzyme targets in vivo. In addition, the insertions were isolated from another human malaria parasite, P. vivax. All Plasmodium CPSII genes investigated encoded two highly hydrophilic insertion sequences of similar size and nature, in the precise position seen in PfCPSII. Although these insertions are poorly conserved, border and internal regions of high homology are present. Thirty-one new DNAzymes were designed to target the P. berghei CPSII insertion II region, seventeen of which demonstrated the ability to cleave the target RNA. Of these, four showed significant cleavage activity, with the DNAzyme MD14 cleaving greater than half the target RNA within five minutes. These DNAzymes were then further characterised for kinetic behaviour. Again, MD14 displayed favourable kinetics of cleavage and was chosen as a suitable candidate in an in vivo rodent malaria trial. Analysis of parasitaemia from the MD14 treated mice indicated the administration of MD14 effected a highly statistically significant reduction of parasitaemia, although this reduction was low (6.3%). More efficient DNAzyme delivery methods were investigated in order to improve DNAzyme efficacy and included the novel use of porphyrin conjugated DNAzymes. The porphyrin-conjugated DNAzymes improved uptake into parasitised red blood cells and significantly reduced parasite growth in vitro at nanomolar levels.

Today, malaria remains the biggest killer of the third world, killing over a million people every year, despite intensive research efforts. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase II (CPSII) is the first and rate-limiting enzyme in pyrimidine biosynthesis of Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria. PfCPSII is a unique target for DNAzyme therapy due to the presence of two unique insertion sequences of 700bp and 1800bp that exist within the mature mRNA transcript. Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous delivery of nucleic acids such as ribozymes and DNAzymes targeting PfCPSII insertion II effectively inhibited the growth of P. falciparum cultures at sub-micromolar levels. The objective of this study was to investigate the insertion sequences within CPSII from rodent malaria species P. berghei, P. chabaudi and P. yoelii in order to further validate the insertions as DNAzyme targets in vivo. In addition, the insertions were isolated from another human malaria parasite, P. vivax. All Plasmodium CPSII genes investigated encoded two highly hydrophilic insertion sequences of similar size and nature, in the precise position seen in PfCPSII. Although these insertions are poorly conserved, border and internal regions of high homology are present. Thirty-one new DNAzymes were designed to target the P. berghei CPSII insertion II region, seventeen of which demonstrated the ability to cleave the target RNA. Of these, four showed significant cleavage activity, with the DNAzyme MD14 cleaving greater than half the target RNA within five minutes. These DNAzymes were then further characterised for kinetic behaviour. Again, MD14 displayed favourable kinetics of cleavage and was chosen as a suitable candidate in an in vivo rodent malaria trial. Analysis of parasitaemia from the MD14 treated mice indicated the administration of MD14 effected a highly statistically significant reduction of parasitaemia, although this reduction was low (6.3%). More efficient DNAzyme delivery methods were investigated in order to improve DNAzyme efficacy and included the novel use of porphyrin conjugated DNAzymes. The porphyrin-conjugated DNAzymes improved uptake into parasitised red blood cells and significantly reduced parasite growth in vitro at nanomolar levels.

Pang, Lap-yin. / "42" in title is subscript. / "July 2000." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-173). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Chan Ping Kei. / Thesis submitted in: December 2001. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-143). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEGEMENTS --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTECTS --- p.v / LIST OF FIGURE --- p.viii / LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --- p.xii / CHAPTER / Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter 1.1 --- Epidemilogy --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Malaria disease --- p.1 / Chapter 1.3 --- Life cycle of Malaria --- p.1 / Chapter 1.4 --- Current measure to control Malaria --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Anti-malaria vaccine candidate --- p.7 / Chapter 1.6 --- Anti-erythrocytic malaria vaccine MSP-1 --- p.10 / Chapter 1.7 --- Baculovirus Expression System --- p.20 / Chapter 1.8 --- hexa-histidine tagged fusion protein --- p.25 / Chapter 1.9 --- IMAC --- p.26 / Chapter 1.10 --- Aim of study --- p.26 / Chapter 2 --- MATERIALS AND METHODS / Chapter 2.1 --- Materials --- p.29 / Chapter 2.2 --- Methods --- p.40 / Chapter 3 --- CONSTRUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RECOMBINANT BmNPV CARRYING PfMSP-l42 / Chapter 3.1 --- Cloning of C-HisPfMSP-l42 into pBM030 --- p.71 / Chapter 3.2 --- Construction of Recombinant BmNPV Carrying PfMSP-l42 --- p.72 / Chapter 3.3 --- Purification of Recombinant BmNPVs --- p.78 / Chapter 3.4 --- In vitro expression of Recombinant --- p.80 / Chapter 3.5 --- In Vivo Expression of Recombinant PfMSP-l42 Protein --- p.80 / Chapter 4 --- PURIFICATION OF BmNPV-EXPRESSED RECOMBINANT C- TERMIAL HEXA-HIS-TAGGED PfMSP-l42 PROTEIN / Chapter 4.1 --- Nickel ion charged Chelating Sepharose Fast Flow (immobilized metal affinity chromatography) --- p.88 / Chapter 4.2 --- POROS HS/M (Strong Cation Exchanger) --- p.105 / Chapter 4.3 --- Combination of chromatographic separations --- p.107 / Chapter 5 --- CHARACTERIZATION OF RECOMBINANT C-HISPfMSP-l42 PROTEIN / Chapter 5.1 --- Proper formation of disulphide bridges in epidermal growth factor (EGF) like domains --- p.115 / Chapter 5.2 --- Characterization of the integrity of hexa-histidines residue on recombinant PfMSP-142 protein --- p.117 / Chapter 5.3 --- Immunogenicity of Recombinant C-HisPfMSP-l42 Protein --- p.117 / Chapter 6 --- DISCUSSION / Chapter 6.1 --- Construction of recombinant BmNPV carrying HisPfMSP-l42 --- p.122 / Chapter 6.2 --- Expression of recombinant HisPfMSP-l42 proteins --- p.123 / Chapter 6.3 --- Purification of recombinant C-HisPfMSP-l42 protein --- p.125 / Chapter 6.4 --- Characterization of recombinant C-HisPfMSP-l42 protein --- p.128 / Chapter 6.5 --- Future prospects --- p.130 / REFERENCE --- p.135 / APPENDICES / Chapter 1. --- Appearance of Mulberry leaves / Chapter 2. --- Biomark 2000 (Beckman) program for sandwich ELISA protocol / Chapter 3. --- Nucleotide Sequence of PfMSP-l42 3D7 Isolate / Chapter 4. --- Nucleotide sequence of PfMSP-l42 FVO isolate / Chapter 5. --- Efficiency of the mAb5.2 immunoaffinity column in purifying the recombinant PfMSP-l42 protein

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Aminoquinolines are important class of drugs that have been used for malaria chemotherapy for centuries. However, long-term exposure to these drugs leads to extensive spread of drug resistance. As such, modified chloroquinoline derivatives are being studied as alternative antimalarial agents with the possibility to overcome drug resistance associated with chloroquine analogues. In this study, 15 aminoquinoline derivatives that are linked by a 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole ring to an ethyl and propyl carbon spacer with a distal amine motif were designed and synthesized as novel antimalarial agents using the Cu(I)-promoted Huisgen reaction. The compounds have been synthesized from the 7-chloro-N-(prop-2-yn-1-yl)quinolin-4-amine alkyne precursor and the azides of ethyl and propyl amino moieties using a 1,3-dipolar cycloadditioncoupling in the presence of CuI catalyst to obtain moderate to good yields (53 – 85%). These compounds have been characterized by the combination of NMR, ESI+ HRMS and IR spectroscopic methods. The antiplasmodial activity of the compounds was investigated in vitro against P. falciparum strain NF54 using chloroquine as a reference drug together with a standard antimalarial drug artesunate. Of the 15 novel chloroquinoline derivatives, 11 have demonstrated to possess promising potency by way of the inhibition concentrations less than 250 nM with the lowest being 28 nM. The observed activities have been ascribed to the overall modifications such as the introduction of a triazole linker and changing of carbon chain length as these were the variables. The compounds are accordingly under further biological investigations and only the chloroquine sensitive results are reported in this work.

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG, FR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MEDICINE. / The influence of iron on the outcome of various infections have been extensively reviewed. Clinical observations suggests that iron deficiency may be protective against malaria. Various researchers have shown that certain iron chelators blocked the proliferation of plasmodium falciparum in vitro and in vivo. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2018

Leung Wai-hang. / "November 2002." / On t.p. "33" and "42" are subscripts following the word "MSP-1" in the title. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-171). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

In the second part of the project, the immunology of PfMSP-133 was studied. During the invasion of merozoites, PfMSP--142 is processed into two fragments with molecular weight of 33kDa and 19kDa. The 19kDa fragment (PfMSP-119) originating from the carboxyl--terminal of PfMSP--142 is relatively more immuno-dominant in different malarial species such as P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. yoelii. In the past, only limited researches about PfMSP-1 33 were performed. Apart from its difficulty in expression, PfMSP-1 33 was also believed to be incapable of inducing protection. / Nevertheless, following the breakthrough of expressing recombinant PfMSP-1 33 in our laboratory, we have demonstrated in this study that recombinant MSP-133 can elicit antibodies with a titer up to a million. Also, we observed that MSP-133 can help MSP-119 to induce protective immunity and such effect is independent from the covalent linkage between these two proteins. Most importantly, our results show that recombinant PfMSP-133 can elicit the production of antibodies that can potentiate the inhibitory effect of anti-MSP-142 serum at high serum dilution. Results of this study give new insights in malarial vaccine development in terms of optimizing the use of adjuvant and immunization regimens. / The 42kDa carboxyl terminal fragment of Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Surface Protein-1 (PfMSP--142) is one of the most promising candidate antigens in the development of malarial vaccine. In vivo experiments in the 1990's showed that Aotus monkeys immunized with PfMSP--142 were protected from malarial challenge. Later on, other experiments also demonstrated the possibility of using recombinant PfMSP-142 as candidate antigen for malarial vaccine. Previously, recombinant PfMSP-142 (Bvp42) was expressed with the baculovirus expression system and characterized in our laboratory. / The aim of the first part of this project is to improve the production of Bvp42. Experimental results have shown that the expression level of Bvp42 was increased under a BMN compatible baculovirus expression vector---pVL1393. Besides, a codon optimized MSP-142 nucleotide is constructed for the construction of a baculovirus carrying codon optimized MSP-142 gene and aimed for higher expression level. Unfortunately, no Bvp42 expression is observed in the transfection samples and the reason of this observation is unclear. Meanwhile, the purification of Bvp42 was also improved. Pretreatment of the hemolymph with Q--sepharose before affinity chromatography could enhance the purity of the final product. / Yuen, Sai-hang Don. / "July 2007." / Adviser: Walter K. K. Ho. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0220. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-195). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Malaria, caused by an intracellular Plasmodium parasite, remains a devastating disease, having claimed approximately 655 000 lives worldwide in 2010. The Medicines for Malaria Venture suggests a "single-dose radical cure" as the ideal malaria treatment since rapid clearance of blood-stage parasites and symptom relief improves patient compliance and limits drug resistance. Thus, novel antimalarials should be rapid-acting and assessing their rate of activity is critical to drug discovery. Traditional evaluation of this rate by morphological assessments is flawed by highly subjective, operator-specific interpretations, mainly due to heterogeneous parasite morphology under routine culture conditions. This study aimed to develop an alternative, quantitative assay. Energy is vital for the growth and maintenance of all living organisms. Commercially available kits allow rapid quantification of the cell's energy currency, ATP. Therefore, quantification of parasite ATP shows potential for diagnosing abnormal parasite metabolism and the kinetics of drug action. In this study, a rapid protocol for detecting ATP in Plasmodium falciparum parasites using a luminescence-based kit was developed and optimised. Furthermore, luciferase-expressing transgenic parasites, in which luciferase activity is detected using a similar kit, were acquired. The utility of both methods for evaluating the rate of drug-induced stress was explored using antimalarials with varying modes of action and, presumably, rates of activity. Results showed that parasite ATP remained unchanged, increased or decreased during drug exposure. Morphological examinations by light microscopy and a Recovery assay, aided interpretation of the drug-induced changes in parasite ATP. These investigations suggested that unchanged parasite ATP levels reflect poor drug action, increased ATP levels indicate a stress response and partially compromised viability, while significantly reduced ATP reflects severely compromised viability. Concerning the Luciferase assay, parasite luciferase activity decreased during drug exposure, even in the presence of proteasome inhibitors. Changes in parasite ATP and luciferase activity occurred at rates which suggested that chloroquine is slow-acting, mefloquine has a moderate rate of activity and artemisinin is rapid-acting. These findings are compatible with the expected rates of activity of these established antimalarials. Hence, measurement of parasite ATP and/or luciferase activity may support assessments of parasite health and the kinetics of antimalarial action during drug discovery

Malaria poses the greatest threat of all parasites to human life. Current vaccines and efficacious drugs are available however their use is limited due to toxicity, emergence of drug resistance, and cost. The discovery of an alternative pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis, the non-mevalonate pathway, within the malarial parasite has resulted in development of novel anti-malarial drugs. 1-Deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate (DOXP) reductoisomerase, the second enzyme in this pathway, is responsible for the synthesis of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) in an intramolecular rearrangement step followed by a reduction process involving NADPH as a hydrogen donor and divalent cations as co-factors. Fosmidomycin and FR900098 have been identified as inhibitors of DOXP reductoisomerase. However, they lack clinical efficacy. In this investigation recombinant DOXP reductoisomerase from Escherichia coli (EcDXR) and Plasmodium falciparum (pfDXR) were biochemically characterized as potential targets for inhibition. (His)6-EcDXR was successfully purified using nickel-chelate affinity chromatography with a specific activity of 1.77 μmoles/min/mg and Km value 282 μM. Utilizing multiple sequence alignment, previous structural data predictions and homology modeling approaches, critical active site amino acid residues were identified and their role in the catalytic activity investigated utilizing site-directed mutagenesis techniques. We have shown evidence that suggests that Trp212 and Met214 interact to maintain the active site architecture and hydrophobic interactions necessary for substrate binding, cofactor binding and enzyme activity. Replacement of Trp212 with Tyr, Phe, and Leu reduced specific activity relative to EcDXR. EcDXR(W212F) and EcDXR(W212Y) had an increased Km relative to EcDXR indicative of loss in affinity toward DOXP, whereas EcDXR(W212L) had a lower Km of ~8 μM indicative of increased affinity for DOXP. The W212L substitution possibly removed contacts necessary for full catalytic activity, but could be considered a non-disruptive substitution in that it maintained active site architecture sufficient for DOXP reductoisomerase activity. EcDXR(M214I) had 36-fold reduced enzyme activity relative to EcDXR, while its Km (~8 μM) was found to be lower than that of EcDXR. This suggested that the M214I substitution had maintained (perhaps improved) substrate and active site architecture, but may have perturbed interactions with NADPH. Rational drug design strategies and docking methods have been utilized in the development of furan derivatives as DOXP reductoisomerase inhibitors, and the synthesis of phosphorylated derivatives (5) and (6) has been achieved. Future inhibitor studies using these novel potential DOXP reductoisomerase inhibitors may lead to the development of effective anti-malarial drug candidates.