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Version 1
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The digestive vacuole of the malaria parasite: a specialized lysosome
Version 1
: Received: 2 February 2024 / Approved: 5 February 2024 / Online: 5 February 2024 (15:03:03 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Wiser, M.F. The Digestive Vacuole of the Malaria Parasite: A Specialized Lysosome. Pathogens 2024, 13, 182. Wiser, M.F. The Digestive Vacuole of the Malaria Parasite: A Specialized Lysosome. Pathogens 2024, 13, 182.
Abstract
The malaria parasite resides within erythrocytes during one stage of its life cycle. During this intraerythrocytic period, the parasite ingests the erythrocyte cytoplasm and digests approximately two-thirds of the host cell hemoglobin. This digestion occurs within a lysosome-like organelle called the digestive vacuole. Several proteases are localized to the digestive vacuole and these proteases sequentially breakdown hemoglobin into small peptides, dipeptides, and amino acids. The peptides are exported into the host cytoplasm via the chloroquine-resistance transporter and an amino acid transporter has also been identified on the digestive vacuole membrane. The environment of the digestive vacuole also provides appropriate conditions for the biocrystallization of toxic heme into non-toxic hemozoin by a poorly understood process. Hemozoin formation is an attribute of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus and is not exhibited by other intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites. The efficient degradation of hemoglobin and detoxification of heme likely plays a major role in the high level of replication exhibited by malaria parasites within erythrocytes. Unique features of the digestive vacuole and the critical importance of nutrient acquisition provide therapeutic targets for the treatment of malaria.
Keywords
Plasmodium, malaria, digestive vacuole, food vacuole, endocytosis, lysosome, endosome, hemozoin, hematozoans, anti-malarial
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Parasitology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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