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Hindawi, Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, (2010), p. 1-9, 2010

DOI: 10.1155/2010/854927

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The Lipid Moiety of Haemozoin (Malaria Pigment) andP. falciparumParasitised Red Blood Cells Bind Synthetic and Native Endothelin-1

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Endothelin1 (ET-1) is a 21-amino acid peptide produced by the vascular endothelium under hypoxia, that acts locally as regulator of vascular tone and inflammation. The role of ET-1 in Plasmodium falciparum malaria is unknown, although tissue hypoxia is frequent as a result of the cytoadherence of parasitized red blood cell (pRBC) to the microvasculature. Here, we show that both synthetic and endothelial-derived ET-1 are removed by parasitized RBC (D10 and W2 strains, chloroquine sensitive, and resistant, resp.) and native haemozoin (HZ, malaria pigment), but not by normal RBC, delipidized HZ, or synthetic beta-haematin (BH). The effect is dose dependent, selective for ET-1, but not for its precursor, big ET-1, and not due to the proteolysis of ET-1. The results indicate that ET-1 binds to the lipids moiety of HZ and membranes of infected RBCs. These findings may help understanding the consequences of parasite sequestration in severe malaria.