An organelle in apicomplexan parasites including those causing malaria and toxoplasmosis may be the site of a plant biosynthetic pathway that could provide new targets for drug discovery and development.
References
Fichera, M.E. & Roos, D.S. A plastid organdie as a drug target in apicomplexan parasites. Nature 390, 407–409 (1997).
Wilson, R.J.M. et al. Complete gene map of the plastid-like DNA of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. J. Mol. Biol. 261, 155–172 (1996).
Köhler, S. et al. A plastid of probable green algal origin in apicomplexan parasites. Science 275, 1485–1489 (1997).
Roberts, F. et al. Evidence for shikimate pathway in apicomplexan parasites. Nature 393, 801–805 (1998).
Bentley, R. The shikimate pathway—a metabolic tree with many branches. Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 25, 307–383 (1990).
McFadden, G.I., Reith, M.E., Munholland, J. & Lang-Unnasch, N. Plastid in human parasites. Nature 381, 482 (1996).
Ridley, R.G. Antimalarial drug discovery and development—an industrial perspective. Exptl. Parasitol. 87, 293–304 (1997).
Lill R., Nargang F.E. & Neupert W. Biogenesis of mitochondrial proteins. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 8, 505–512 (1996).
Hrazdina, C. & Jensen, R.R. Spatial organisation of enzymes in plant metabolic pathways. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 43, 241 (1992).
Donald, R.G.K. & Roos, D.S. Gene knock-outs and allelic replacements in Toxoplasma gondii: HXGPRT as a selectable marker for ‘hit and run’ mutagenesis. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 91, 295–305 (1998).
Crabb, B.S. et al. Targeted gene disruption shows that knobs enable malaria infected red cells to cytoadhere under physiological conditions. Cell 89, 287–296 (1997).
Ajioka, J. et al. Gene discovery by EST sequencing in Toxoplasma gondii reveals sequences restricted to the apicomplexa. Genome Research 8, 18–28 (1998)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ridley, R. Planting new targets for antiparasitic drugs. Nat Med 4, 894–895 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0898-894
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0898-894
- Springer Nature America, Inc.
This article is cited by
-
Helicobacter pylori: Perturbation and restoration of gut microbiome
Journal of Biosciences (2020)