MALARIA- DETAILED DISCUSSION

malaria is a deadly disease that affects more than 200 million people annually resulting in almost half a million deaths each year this disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites which cause extremely high fevers and shaking chills by infecting and reproducing inside human red blood cells.

the parasites are transmitted between humans by mosquitoes when an infected mosquito bites a human the parasites travel with the mosquitos saliva into the human bloodstream parasites travel to the liver where they mature into a form capable of infecting red blood cells the mature parasites burst out of liver cells into the bloodstream where they quickly invade red blood cells. During this process the outer membrane of the red blood cell folds inwards to form a sac called vacuole around the parasite from within this vacuole the parasite makes and transports hundreds of proteins out into the red blood cell to remodel its new home these hundreds of proteins pass through a gate keeper in the vacuole membrane called ptex PTX is a novel membrane protein complex which is essential for the parasite to
live using a technique called cryo-electron microscopy we have obtained high-resolution 3d structures at the PTX complex which help us to understand how this unique machine works at the atomic level.

From our structures we see that PTX is a molecular machine that unfolds hundreds of malaria proteins and transports them across the vacuole membrane into the red blood cell our new understanding of this fascinating molecular machine paves the way for designing desperately needed new anti malarial drugs you