Malaria

Question 1

Describe symptoms of malaria

Answer 1

Fever (48hr cycle)
Malarial anaconia 
hypoglycaemia, respiratory distress
coma due to cerebral malaria
renal failure
low birth weight, miscarriage, death of unborn babies

Question 2

Give three major stages which are malaria vaccine targets

Answer 2

Pre-erythrocytic
Asexual
sexual

Immunity against different targets have different outcomes

Question 3

Give ways to eliminate erythrocyte stage parasites

Answer 3

Sporozoites - Ab against surface antigens

Liver Schizont - T Cells (CD4 + parasite peptide = cytotoxicity)

Question 4

Give ways to eliminate sexual stage parasites

Answer 4

Merozoite opsonisation via antibodies
Inhibition of invasion - Ab binds to surface and prevents merozoite from entering RBC
Merozoite agglutination - stick dem bitches together yo (Ab)

Question 5

N-myristoyl transferase

Answer 5

Current promising vaccine target
Enzyme which adds afatty acid onto N terminal glycine of substrate
Acylates GAP45 (among other things)

Question 6

Describe how the malaria parasite invades a RBC

Answer 6

Merozoite attaches to RBC via surface proteins, realigns itself and forms attachment. Invaginates RBC through inward motion driven by actomyosin motor (located in space between plasma membrane and inner membrane complex).

Question 7

Describe how GAP45 is crucial to the actomyosin motor

Answer 7

holds together plasma membrane and inner membrane complex and helps to form part of the motor

Question 8

Describe NMT as a vaccine target

Answer 8

Small molecule inhibitors of NMT will kill the parasite by interfering with one or more ofits key pathways

Genetic knockdown in mice parasites resulted in reduced viability