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Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites

Plasmodium parasites cause malaria disease, one of the leading global health burdens for humanity, infecting hundreds of millions of people each year. Different glycans on the parasite and the host cell surface play significant roles in both malaria pathogenesis and host defense mechanisms. So far,...

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Autores principales: Goerdeler, Felix, Seeberger, Peter H., Moscovitz, Oren
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8322443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34335547
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.712538
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author Goerdeler, Felix
Seeberger, Peter H.
Moscovitz, Oren
author_facet Goerdeler, Felix
Seeberger, Peter H.
Moscovitz, Oren
author_sort Goerdeler, Felix
collection PubMed
description Plasmodium parasites cause malaria disease, one of the leading global health burdens for humanity, infecting hundreds of millions of people each year. Different glycans on the parasite and the host cell surface play significant roles in both malaria pathogenesis and host defense mechanisms. So far, only small, truncated N- and O-glycans have been identified in Plasmodium species. In contrast, complex glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) glycolipids are highly abundant on the parasite’s cell membrane and are essential for its survival. Moreover, the parasites express lectins that bind and exploit the host cell surface glycans for different aspects of the parasite life cycle, such as adherence, invasion, and evasion of the host immune system. In parallel, the host cell glycocalyx and lectin expression serve as the first line of defense against Plasmodium parasites and directly dictate susceptibility to Plasmodium infection. This review provides an overview of the glycobiology involved in Plasmodium-host interactions and its contribution to malaria pathogenesis. Recent findings are presented and evaluated in the context of potential therapeutic exploitation.
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spelling pubmed-83224432021-07-31 Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites Goerdeler, Felix Seeberger, Peter H. Moscovitz, Oren Front Microbiol Microbiology Plasmodium parasites cause malaria disease, one of the leading global health burdens for humanity, infecting hundreds of millions of people each year. Different glycans on the parasite and the host cell surface play significant roles in both malaria pathogenesis and host defense mechanisms. So far, only small, truncated N- and O-glycans have been identified in Plasmodium species. In contrast, complex glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) glycolipids are highly abundant on the parasite’s cell membrane and are essential for its survival. Moreover, the parasites express lectins that bind and exploit the host cell surface glycans for different aspects of the parasite life cycle, such as adherence, invasion, and evasion of the host immune system. In parallel, the host cell glycocalyx and lectin expression serve as the first line of defense against Plasmodium parasites and directly dictate susceptibility to Plasmodium infection. This review provides an overview of the glycobiology involved in Plasmodium-host interactions and its contribution to malaria pathogenesis. Recent findings are presented and evaluated in the context of potential therapeutic exploitation. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8322443/ /pubmed/34335547 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.712538 Text en Copyright © 2021 Goerdeler, Seeberger and Moscovitz. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Goerdeler, Felix
Seeberger, Peter H.
Moscovitz, Oren
Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title_full Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title_fullStr Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title_full_unstemmed Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title_short Unveiling the Sugary Secrets of Plasmodium Parasites
title_sort unveiling the sugary secrets of plasmodium parasites
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8322443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34335547
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.712538
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