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Biological Clocks of People and Malaria Parasites Tick in Tune
Health officials warn that drug resistance could wipe out recent progress against malaria, particularly in Africa [npr.org] and southeast Asia [washingtonpost.com]. Now, researchers looking for other ways to fight the mosquito-borne parasites that cause the disease have zeroed in on a potential new target: biological clocks.
Most living things have internal clocks that govern fluctuations in everything from hunger and hormone levels to when genes are active throughout the day.
In a study [pnas.org] published June 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed gene activity in patients who showed up at medical facilities along the Thailand-Cambodia border, showing signs of a malaria infection in their blood.
The team found that malaria parasites somehow sync their molecular rhythms with the internal 24-hour clocks of their hosts, their respective genes rising and falling in perfect lockstep with each other over the course of a day, like two pendulum clocks with synchronized swings.
[...] When someone has malaria, a deadly loop repeats itself inside their body. The disease's recurring fever spikes are caused by microscopic Plasmodium parasites that invade the person's red blood cells, multiply, and then burst out in unison, spewing into the bloodstream by the millions to invade other cells and begin the cycle anew.
This cycle repeats itself every 24, 48 or 72 hours depending on the Plasmodium species. Which got scientists wondering: could the parasites be coordinating in some way with the 24-hour circadian rhythms of their hosts?
[...] The team found that not every patient's 24-hour internal clock ran on exactly the same schedule. Some had cycles that began earlier in the day; some later. But no matter how a person's biological rhythms were shifted, the cycling genes in their malaria parasites were aligned to match [pnas.org].
[...] Scientists still don't know what drives malaria parasites to coordinate their rhythms with those of their host. "The parasites are likely taking advantage of their host's internal rhythms to achieve their own ends," Haase said, but the nature of the advantage is unclear.
[...] If they can figure out how malaria parasites stay in step in humans, the researchers say it may be possible to develop new drugs that decouple the parasite's clock from that of its host, and thereby help the immune system better fight the invaders.
Journal Reference:
Francis C. Motta, Kevin McGoff, Robert C. Moseley, et al., The Parasite Intraerythrocytic Cycle and Human Circadian Cycle Are Coupled During Malaria Infection, PNAS, 2023. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216522120 [doi.org]
