Sharma Y D
Department of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
Comp Biochem Physiol B. 1992 Jul;102(3):437-44. doi: 10.1016/0305-0491(92)90033-n.
Like many prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the malaria parasite also synthesizes several stress proteins. Most widely studied stress proteins of this parasite are the heat-shock proteins (hsps). Their discovery in malaria is a gift of recombinant DNA technology. Five hsp genes from Plasmodium falciparum have been identified which are located on different chromosomes. Thus the inheritance and expression of hsp genes are independent of each other. They share a large amount of sequence homology at N-terminus with the hsps of other organisms. Their gene regulatory sequences and other elements, important for gene expression, are yet to be determined. The biological role of these proteins in malaria is not fully understood but it is possible that they provide protection to the parasite from various stresses encountered in the host. In this process hsps probably bind to the toxic molecules as well as damaged proteins to flush them out of the parasite. Their involvement in the stage-specific parasite transformation to increase the infectivity and virulence, as observed in other parasites, remains to be determined. Malarial hsps are antigenic in humans. This antigenicity could be attributed to the non-homologous sequences in the C-terminus region. The potential of one of them (pfhsp 70I) for a future malaria vaccine and immunodiagnostics requires re-evaluation of the data.
与许多原核生物和真核生物一样，疟原虫也能合成多种应激蛋白。该寄生虫研究最广泛的应激蛋白是热休克蛋白（hsps）。它们在疟疾中的发现得益于重组DNA技术。恶性疟原虫的五个hsp基因已被鉴定出来，它们位于不同的染色体上。因此，hsp基因的遗传和表达相互独立。它们在N端与其他生物的hsps有大量的序列同源性。它们的基因调控序列和其他对基因表达重要的元件尚未确定。这些蛋白质在疟疾中的生物学作用尚未完全了解，但它们有可能保护寄生虫免受宿主体内遇到的各种应激。在这个过程中，hsps可能会与有毒分子以及受损蛋白质结合，将它们排出寄生虫体外。正如在其他寄生虫中观察到的那样，它们是否参与阶段特异性的寄生虫转化以增加感染性和毒力仍有待确定。疟原虫的hsps在人类中具有抗原性。这种抗原性可能归因于C端区域的非同源序列。其中一种（pfhsp 70I）在未来疟疾疫苗和免疫诊断方面的潜力需要对数据进行重新评估。
