Cloning expression and characterization of lactate dehydrogenase from Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium knowlesi the human malaria parasites

Abstract

Malaria is a parasitic disease which has severely affected the socio-economic newlineconditions of the tropical and sub-tropical countries. Species-specific diagnosis of the parasite newlinespecific enzyme/antigen and subsequent cure of malaria is essential for control and effective newlinemanagement of the disease. Plasmodium vivax, earlier known for causing benign malaria is newlineslowly transforming to the malignant form due to the increasing severity caused by it as well newlineas the existence of dormant stage in P. vivax, having different drug. Plasmodium knowlesi, is newlinethe emerging human malaria parasite with their natural infection in humans, first reported in newlineMalaysia. However, the P. knowlesi infections are limited only to some countries like China, newlinePhilippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Singapore. Thus, specific diagnostic newlinetools are required to assess the public health importance of these malaria parasites in newlineSoutheast Asian countries. Most of the malaria diagnostic tests are either P. falciparum newlinespecific or pan-specific and some are P. vivax specific but with low sensitivity. Therefore, newlinedevelopment of accurate, rapid and prompt diagnostic test is necessary for diagnosis of P. newlinevivax and P. knowlesi infections. Three protein targets are widely being employed in the newlinemalaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). These are Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich newlineprotein 2, Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase and aldolase. Glycolytic enzyme, lactate newlinedehydrogenase is one of the most important enzymes for malaria parasite for deriving their newlineenergy in the anaerobic environment of the host. Furthermore, Plasmodial LDH (pLDH) is newlinebiochemically, immunologically and structurally different from the mammalian and bacterial newlineLDHs as demonstrated in many studies. Therefore, Plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase can be newlineemployed as the potential target for specific diagnosis and cure of malaria.