Gayathri P, Balaram Hemalatha, Murthy M R N
Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2007 Dec;17(6):744-54. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2007.08.001. Epub 2007 Sep 17.
Malaria is a global disease infecting several million individuals annually. Malarial infection is particularly severe in the poorest parts of the world and is a major drain on their limited resources. Development of drug resistance and absence of a preventive vaccine have led to an immediate necessity for identifying new drug targets to combat malaria. Understanding the intricacies of parasite biology is essential to design novel intervention strategies that can prevent the growth of the parasite. The structural biology approach towards this goal involves the identification of key differences in the structures of the human and parasite enzymes and the determination of unique protein structures essential for parasite survival. This review covers the work on structural biology of plasmodial proteins carried out during the period of January 2006 to June 2007.
疟疾是一种全球性疾病，每年感染数百万人。疟疾感染在世界最贫困地区尤为严重，是对其有限资源的重大消耗。耐药性的出现以及预防性疫苗的缺失，使得立即有必要确定新的抗疟药物靶点。了解寄生虫生物学的复杂性对于设计能够阻止寄生虫生长的新型干预策略至关重要。实现这一目标的结构生物学方法包括确定人类和寄生虫酶结构的关键差异，以及确定寄生虫生存所必需的独特蛋白质结构。本综述涵盖了2006年1月至2007年6月期间开展的疟原虫蛋白质结构生物学研究工作。
