Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BiMoBi), iFZ, Justus-Liebig University Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2021;1340:1-9. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-78397-6_1.
Malaria did not die with the end of the age of western colonization but is still a major public health issue in large parts of the world. Despite repeated and concerted efforts to eradicate this disease, it has proved remarkably resilient, and constant vigilance and continuous research are required to discover new chinks in the parasite's armor and alleviate the suffering at both the individual and societal levels. A deeper understanding of the fundamental processes underlying parasite survival, propagation, virulence, and ability to cause disease is the key to the development of desperately needed new therapies and prophylactic drugs. Malaria parasites, by the nature of their lifecycle, are subject to a number of environmental and cellular stresses which they must overcome to survive. To this end, they express a number of heat shock proteins (HSPs), molecules specialized on buffering the effects of external stimuli, but which are also essential for normal cellular biochemistry. In this introductory chapter, I give a brief overview of the diversity of structure, function, and importance of these HSPs, and highlight some of the current and future research questions in this field. Additionally, this chapter acts as a bridge to the other chapters in this book. These chapters, I think you will agree, demonstrate that with regard to HSPs malaria parasites, as in so many things, obey the adage "Same same, but different."
疟疾并没有随着西方殖民时代的结束而消亡，它仍然是世界上许多地区的一个主要公共卫生问题。尽管人们反复、协同努力根除这种疾病，但它已经被证明具有很强的韧性，需要持续的警惕和不断的研究，以发现寄生虫盔甲上的新弱点，并减轻个人和社会层面的痛苦。更深入地了解寄生虫生存、繁殖、毒力和引起疾病的基本过程是开发急需的新疗法和预防性药物的关键。疟原虫由于其生命周期的性质，会受到许多环境和细胞压力的影响，它们必须克服这些压力才能生存。为此，它们表达了许多热休克蛋白（HSPs），这些分子专门用于缓冲外部刺激的影响，但对于正常的细胞生物化学也是必不可少的。在这一章中，我简要概述了这些 HSPs 的结构、功能和重要性的多样性，并强调了该领域当前和未来的一些研究问题。此外，这一章是本书其他章节的桥梁。我认为，这些章节表明，就热休克蛋白而言，疟原虫与许多其他事物一样，遵循着“大同小异”的格言。
