Malaria and Vector Research Group (MVRG), Biotechnology Research Center (BRC), Pasteur Institute of Iran (PII), Pasteur Avenue, Tehran, Iran.
J Med Entomol. 2019 Jan 8;56(1):72-85. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjy127.
Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is considered a priority of the World Health Organization due to its enormous impacts on global health. Plasmodium spp. (Haemosporida: Plasmodiidae), Anopheles spp. (Diptera: Culicidae), and a suitable host are the key elements for malaria transmission. To disrupt the parasitic life cycle of malaria or prevent its transmission, these three key elements should be targeted by effective control strategies. Development of vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission is one of the solutions that has been recommended to the countries that aim to eliminate malaria. With respect to the important role of Anopheles stephensi in malaria transmission and involvement of Anopheles carboxypeptidase B1 in sexual parasite development, we characterized the second member of cpb gene family (cpbAs2) of An. Stephensi to provide some basic information and evaluate significance of cpbAs2's role in complementing sexual plasmodium development role of cpbAs1. The cpbAs2 mRNA sequence was characterized by 3' and 5' RACE and the structural features of its coded protein were studied by in silico modeling. The coding sequence and gene structure of cpbAs2 were determined empirically and compared with the in silico predictions from the An. stephensi genome sequencing project. Furthermore, homology modeling revealed that its structure is very similar to the structurally important domains of procarboxypeptidase B2 in humans. This study provides basic molecular and structural information about another member of the cpb gene family of An. stephensi. The reported results are informative and necessary for evaluation of the role of this gene in sexual parasite development by future studies.
疟疾是一种由媒介传播的传染病，由于其对全球健康的巨大影响，被世界卫生组织视为优先事项。疟原虫属（Haemosporida: Plasmodiidae）、按蚊属（Diptera: Culicidae）和合适的宿主是疟疾传播的关键要素。为了破坏疟疾的寄生生命周期或阻止其传播，这些三个关键要素应该是有效的控制策略的目标。开发中断疟疾传播的疫苗是建议旨在消除疟疾的国家采取的解决方案之一。鉴于斯蒂芬斯按蚊在疟疾传播中的重要作用以及羧肽酶 B1 在性寄生虫发育中的作用，我们对斯蒂芬斯按蚊的第二成员 cpb 基因家族（cpbAs2）进行了特征描述，以提供一些基本信息，并评估 cpbAs2 在补充性发育中的作用的重要性。通过 3' 和 5' RACE 对 cpbAs2 的 mRNA 序列进行了特征描述，并通过计算机模拟研究了其编码蛋白的结构特征。通过经验确定了 cpbAs2 的编码序列和基因结构，并与来自 An. stephensi 基因组测序项目的计算机预测进行了比较。此外，同源建模表明其结构与人类原羧肽酶 B2 的结构重要结构域非常相似。本研究为斯蒂芬斯按蚊 cpb 基因家族的另一个成员提供了基本的分子和结构信息。所报道的结果为未来研究评估该基因在性寄生虫发育中的作用提供了信息和必要的基础。
