Institute of Evolutionary Biology & Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Department of Neuroscience, Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute & Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Feb 12;27(2):176-187. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.01.005.
Biological rhythms appear to be an elegant solution to the challenge of coordinating activities with the consequences of the Earth's daily and seasonal rotation. The genes and molecular mechanisms underpinning circadian clocks in multicellular organisms are well understood. In contrast, the regulatory mechanisms and fitness consequences of biological rhythms exhibited by parasites remain mysterious. Here, we explore how periodicity in parasite traits is generated and why daily rhythms matter for parasite fitness. We focus on malaria (Plasmodium) parasites which exhibit developmental rhythms during replication in the mammalian host's blood and in transmission to vectors. Rhythmic in-host parasite replication is responsible for eliciting inflammatory responses, the severity of disease symptoms, and fueling transmission, as well as conferring tolerance to anti-parasite drugs. Thus, understanding both how and why the timing and synchrony of parasites are connected to the daily rhythms of hosts and vectors may make treatment more effective and less toxic to hosts.
生物节律似乎是解决协调活动与地球每日和季节性旋转后果这一挑战的一种优雅解决方案。多细胞生物中昼夜节律钟的基因和分子机制已经得到很好的理解。相比之下，寄生虫表现出的生物节律的调节机制和适应后果仍然是神秘的。在这里，我们探讨了寄生虫特征的周期性是如何产生的，以及为什么每日节律对寄生虫的适应性很重要。我们专注于疟疾（疟原虫）寄生虫，它们在哺乳动物宿主血液中的复制和向媒介传播过程中表现出发育节律。寄生虫在宿主体内的周期性复制负责引发炎症反应、疾病症状的严重程度，并促进传播，同时赋予寄生虫对抗寄生虫药物的耐受性。因此，了解寄生虫的时间安排和同步性如何以及为什么与宿主和媒介的日常节律相关，可能会使治疗更有效，对宿主的毒性更小。
