Na+ Regulation in Intraerythrocytic Parasite responsible for causing malaria Involves a P-type ATPase

Running head: NEWS AND VIEWS
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Change in the internal structure in pathogen is extremely common to incorporate resistance to
the particular class of drugs. In case of malaria also, the pathogen responsible for causing bacteria gains
resistance to a drug by a variety of mechanism (CDC 2019). Spiro-indolone antimalarials are a class of
drug that can prevent or kill the pathogen responsible for malaria. Plasmodium falciparum , a parasite
responsible for causing malaria in individual undergoes through various of mechanism to infect the host
cell (Ashley et al. 2014). Malaria can be caused by the pathogen known as Plasmodium falciparum, by
a variety of mechanism. These parasites infect the body by a vector , named as anopheles mosquito. In
the body, the parasites grow and then multiply exponentially to cause infection (Soulard et al. 2015).
The parasites are injected in the human body in the form of sporozoites into the blood stream of the
individual. It then multiply asexually into the human liver and release merozoites into the liver cells
(Maier et al. 2015). Those merozoites then invade in to the red blood cell known as erythrocytes of the
human and multiply their and tends the cell to burst causing fever to the individual having malaria. After
passing to the erythrocytes, a new permeability pathways are initiated. In the host cell when the parasite
enters, it passes from high Na+ and low K+ environment of blood plasm to the low Na+ and high K+
environment in the host cell cytosol (Blasco, Leroy and Fidock 2017). Hence it cause an increase in the
Na+ in the erythrocytes whereas, they parasites (intra-erythrocytes) maintains a low Na+. These
maintenance of low concentration of Na+, can be caused due to unknown reason. In some lower plants
such as, bryophytes and fungi and in some protozoa, extrusion of Na+ is caused by a protein named as
ENA (exitus natrus) p-type Na+ ATPase. According to Spillman et al. (2013), it can be stated that
extrusion of NA+ in higher animals can be caused due to a protein named as PfATP4 which is similar to
that of the ENA N+-ATPase. Spiro-indolone which is a novel class drugs targets this protein and
prevents the extrusion and inclusion of the Na+ and K+ channel. It is also seen that mutation in this