Malaria 172 Organelle

A number of antibiotics in addition to the folate antagonists and sulfonamides are modestly active antimalarials. The antibiotics that are bacterial protein synthesis inhibitors appear to act against malaria parasites by inhibiting protein synthesis in a plasmodial prokaryote-like organelle, the apicoplast. None of the antibiotics should be used as single agents in the treatment of malaria because their action is much slower than that of standard antimalarials. 

Therefore, that tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase production in the apicoplast is upregulated (in the chloroquine-induced microarray data) may suggest that this efflux process was made possible (caused) by the apicoplast, the mini bacterium living inside the malaria parasite. Ralph et al. (45) state that it is not yet clear what the key function of the apicoplast is but the organelle is clearly indispensable. Curiously though, parasites cured of their apico-plasts do not die immediately. Rather, they fail to invade new host cells successfully. This suggests that apicoplasts provide some component essential to invasion and or [sic] establishment of the para-sitophorous vacuole in the host cell (46, 47). 

Goldberg, D. E., Slater, A. F., Cerami, A., and Henderson, G. B. (1990). Hemoglobin degradation in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum An ordered process in a unique organelle. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87,2931-2935. 

Preiser, P., Kaviratne, M., Khan, S., Bannister, L., and Jarra, W. (2000). The apical organelles of malaria merozoites Host cell selection, invasion, host immunity and immune evasion. Microbes Infect. 2,1461-1477. 

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