Journal
EXPERIMENTAL PARASITOLOGY
Volume 116, Issue 4, Pages 346-353Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2007.01.022
Keywords
antimicrobial peptide; gomesin; malaria; mosquito; ookinete; oocyst; exflagellation
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R01 AI031478-12, R01 AI031478] Funding Source: Medline
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While seeking strategies for interfering with Plasmodium development in vertebrate/invertebrate hosts, we tested the activity of gomesin, an antimicrobial peptide isolated from the hemocytes of the spider Acanthoscurria gomesiana. Gomesin was tested against asexual, sexual and pre-sporogonic forms of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei parasites. The peptide inhibited the in vitro growth of intraerythrocytic forms of P. falciparum. When gomesin was added to in vitro, culture of P. berghei mature gametocytes, it significantly inhibited the exflagellation of male gametes and the formation of ookinetes. In vivo, the peptide reduced the number of oocysts of both Plasmodium species in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, and did not appear to affect the mosquitoes. These properties make gomesin an excellent candidate as a transmission blocking agent for the genetic engineering of mosquitoes. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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