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Malaria

Malaria. Jonathan Kidd Jennifer Koehl Heather Louch Edwin Wong Penelope Worthington. Name means “bad air”- A life-threatening parasitic disease 40% of the world’s population is at risk 90% of the deaths due to Malaria occur in Sub-Sahara Africa, mostly among young children.

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Malaria

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  1. Malaria Jonathan Kidd Jennifer Koehl Heather Louch Edwin Wong Penelope Worthington

  2. Name means “bad air”- • A life-threatening parasitic disease • 40% of the world’s population is at risk • 90% of the deaths due to Malaria occur in Sub-Sahara Africa, mostly among young children. • Around 400-900 million people are affected • At least 2.7 million deaths annually. • It is one of the major public health concerns

  3. Organism • Malaria is caused by species of Plasmodium. • The genus Plasmodium contains 172 species • only four species are known to infect humans. • Plasmodium falciparum • Plasmodium malariae • Plasmodium ovale • Plasmodium vivax • Plasmodium parasites are highly specific with female Anopheles mosquitoes

  4. Investigating the Plasmodium organism through… • comparison of mitochondrial sequences of Plasmodium spp. • to each other • to bacteria • to Phylum Apicomplexa • Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) • BLASTx • comparison of life cycles of Eimeria vs. Plasmodium spp. • comparison of pathogenic vs. non-pathogenic species using bioinformatics

  5. Investigating the Plasmodium organism through… • a look at clinical malaria (symptoms of P. falciparum vs. other spp.) • a look at geographic distribution of Plasmodium spp. • bioinformatics of genome projects • 1 complete (P. falciparum) • 2 draft (P. yoelii, P. chabaudi) • 5 in progress (P. vivax, P. knowlesi, P. berghei, P. gallinaceum, P. reichenowi) • a look at chromosomes to determine synteny

  6. Investigating Rodent hosts through. . . • comparison of Plasmodium spp. that infect rodents to each other • comparison of rodent geographic distribution to Plasmodium infection • comparison of parasite isoenzymes • PDB structures of parasite isoenzymes • wet lab: biochemical analysis of isoenzymes • use of rodents as model organisms for vaccine development

  7. Anopheles mosquitoes as vectors • what use is the vector genome sequence? • what is the ecology of Anopheles? • investigate the specificity of the vector as related to individual Plasmodium spp. using sequence data • what is the vector geographic distribution with regards to Plasmodium infection? • what are eradication strategies, and implications on Plasmodium genome evolution?

  8. Development of Malaria vaccines • why are they so difficult to develop? • what is relationship to Plasmodium lifecycle? • what epitopes do the vaccines target & why? • what are the model organisms for vaccine development, and why? • most new vaccines are recombinant. Why? • can human vaccines work in other hosts? How does this relate to the vaccine targets?

  9. Malaria as a global problem (ethics) • how does economic and cultural development impact the incidence and/or severity of malaria? • who pays for malaria? • money • time • effort • why should we be concerned if it's not in the U.S.? • vaccination programs • New Chemotherapy • what are difficulties in implementing vaccination programs? • who determines who gets vaccinated? • who gets vaccinated?

  10. Conclusion • Malaria is a global problem that lends itself to a multilayered investigation with bioinformatics as a major component. • The wealth of materials and the ongoing sequencing process make it possible to continually expand the investigation to encompass increasingly sophisticated students.

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