Indispensable malaria genes.
Indispensable malaria genes.
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不可或缺的疟疾基因。
DOI：
10.1126/science.aat5092
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Rathod,PradipsinhK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
White,John;Rathod,PradipsinhK
疟疾寄生虫由蚊子携带并传播给人类，每年感染约 2 亿人并导致约 50 万人死亡 (1)。在确定了引起疟疾的寄生虫恶性疟原虫的基因组序列 15 年后，疟疾治疗仍然严重依赖于几个世纪前使用的天然产品中提取的化学物质 (2)。通过基于细胞的功能测定，疟原虫基因组序列之间的差距。通过确定哪些基因对于寄生虫生命周期的致病血液阶段中的寄生虫繁殖至关重要，可以减少有价值的新疗法的鉴定。最有效且临床上最有用的抗疟药物可迅速消除红细胞 (RBC) 中生长的寄生虫。在本期第 506 页，Zhanget al.(3) 报告了 P 上的诱变筛选。在人类红细胞中培养恶性疟原虫，鉴定出 2680 个不可或缺的寄生虫基因，其中可能含有抗疟药物靶点。然而，重要的是要批判性地评估这些必需基因中的哪些部分将成为良好的药物靶标，以及在药物发现中应如何优先考虑这些靶标。
Malaria parasites, carried by mosquitoes and transmitted to humans, infect ∼200 million individuals and cause ∼500,000 deaths each year (1). Fifteen years after identifying the genome sequence of a malaria-causing parasite,Plasmodium falciparum, malaria treatments still rely heavily on chemicals derived from natural products that were used centuries ago (2). With cell-based functional assays, the gap between genome sequences ofPlasmodiumspp. and the identification of valuable new therapeutics may be reduced by determining which genes are essential for parasite propagation in the disease-causing blood stage of the parasite life-cycle. The most potent and clinically useful antimalarial drugs rapidly eliminate parasites growing in red blood cells (RBCs). On page 506 of this issue, Zhanget al.(3) report a mutagenesis screen onP. falciparumcultured in human RBCs, identifying 2680 indispensable parasite genes, which may contain antimalarial drug targets. However, it is important to critically assess what fraction of these essential genes will be good drug targets and how one should prioritize such targets for drug discovery.