Differential Protein Expression Profiles Between Plasmodium falciparum Parasites Isolated From Subjects Presenting With Pregnancy-Associated Malaria and Uncomplicated Malaria in Benin

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 208; no. 12; pp. 1987 - 1997
• Main Authors: Bertin, Gwladys I., Sabbagh, Audrey, Guillonneau, François, Jafari-Guemouri, Sayeh, Ezinmegnon, Sem, Federici, Christian, Hounkpatin, Benjamin, Fievet, Nadine, Deloron, Philippe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 15.12.2013
• Subjects: Adult; Benin - epidemiology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Cluster Analysis; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human protozoal diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Life cycle. Host-agent relationship. Pathogenesis; Malaria; Malaria, Falciparum - parasitology; Male; Mass Spectrometry; Medical sciences; Membrane Proteins - chemistry; Membrane Proteins - classification; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Microbiology; Parasitemia - parasitology; PARASITES; Parasitic diseases; Plasmodium falciparum - metabolism; Plasmodium falciparum - pathogenicity; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic - parasitology; Principal Component Analysis; Protozoa; Protozoal diseases; Protozoan Proteins - chemistry; Protozoan Proteins - classification; Protozoan Proteins - metabolism; Reproducibility of Results; Benin; West Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa; Pregnancy; Infection; Protozoa; Plasmodium falciparum; Apicomplexa; Protozoal disease; Malaria; Tropical zone; Parasitosis; Protein; mass spectrometry; protein identification; protein abundance; field isolate; pregnancy-associated malaria
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jit377

Background. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for severe malaria, including pregnancy-associated malaria (PAM). During intra-erythrocytic maturation, the infected erythrocyte (iE) membrane is modified by insertion of parasite-derived proteins, primarily consisting of variant surface antigens such as P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein-1. Methods. To identify new PAM-specific parasite membrane proteins, we conducted a mass spectrometry-based proteomic study and compared the protein expression profiles of 10 PAM and 10 uncomplicated malaria (UM) samples. Results. We focused on the 454/1139 membrane-associated and hypothetical proteins for comparative analysis. Using filter-based feature-selection methods combined with supervised data analysis, we identified a subset of 53 proteins that distinguished PAM and UM samples. Up to 19/20 samples were correctly assigned to their respective clinical group. A hierarchical clustering analysis of these 53 proteins based on the similarity of their expression profiles revealed 2 main clusters of 40 and 13 proteins that were under-or over-expressed, respectively, in PAM. Conclusions. VAR2CSA is identified and associated with PAM validating our experimental approach. Other PAM-predictive proteins included PFI1785w, PF14_0018, PFB0115w, PFF0325c, and PFA_0410w. These proteomics data demonstrate the involvement of selected proteins in the pathophysiology of providing new insights for the definition of potential new targets for a vaccine against PAM.