Characterization of the Products of the Heme Detoxification Pathway in Malarial Late Trophozoites by X-ray Diffraction

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry Vol. 272; no. 2; pp. 713 - 716
• Main Authors: Bohle, D S, Dinnebier, R E, Madsen, S K, Stephens, P W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 10.01.1997
• Subjects: Animals; Chemical Phenomena; Chemistry; Heme - metabolism; Hemeproteins - chemistry; Hemin - chemistry; Pigments, Biological - chemistry; Plasmodium; Plasmodium falciparum - metabolism; X-Ray Diffraction
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.272.2.713

In a process inhibited by the quinoline antimalarial drugs, Plasmodia detoxify heme released during the degradation of hemoglobin by aggregating it into malarial pigment, an insoluble crystalline heme coordination polymer. Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction patterns for intact desiccated malarial trophozoites and synthetic β-hematin have been measured; both materials correspond to a single crystalline triclinic lattice with unit cell parameters a = 12.2176(4), b = 14.7184(5), c = 8.0456(3) Å; α = 90.200(2), β = 96.806(3), γ = 97.818(3)° and Z = 2. These results unambiguously demonstrate that hemozoin crystallites are identical to synthetic β-hematin.