Screening of desert plants of the middle east for antimalarials

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Malaria is a major infectous disease claiming an estimated 3 million lifes per year. Rapidly progressing resistance of Plasmodium parasites and insect vectors constitute a rapidly increasing world wide threat to public health. The recently discovered non-mevalonate pathway of terpenoid biosynthesis has been established as an antimalarial target sice Plasmodium sp. are absolutely dependent on the enzymes of this pathway which are absent in humans. In order to discover novel antimalaria agents, desert plants will be collected and plant extracts will be prepard by the Israeli and Palestinian partners. Enzymes of the non-mevalonate pathway from Plasmodium falciparum will be expressed in recombinant bacterial strains by the German group and will be used to screen the plant extracts for inhibitory activity. Inhibitory compounds will be isolated in pure form, and their structures will be determined.