Title: Exploring systems affected by the heat shock response in Plasmodium falciparum via protein association networks

Authors: Timothy G. Lilburn; Hong Cai; Jianying Gu; Zhan Zhou; Yufeng Wang

Addresses: 328 Jamestown Road, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA ' Department of Biology, South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA ' Department of Biology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA ' Department of Biology, South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA ' Department of Biology, South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA

Abstract: The heat shock response is a general mechanism by which organisms deal with physical insults such as sudden changes in temperature, osmotic and oxidative stresses, and exposure to toxic substances. Plasmodium falciparum is exposed to drastic temperature changes as a part of its life cycle and maintains an extensive repertoire of heat shock response-related proteins. As these proteins serve to maintain the parasite in the face of anti-malarial drugs as well, better understanding of the heat shock-related systems in the malaria parasite will lead to therapeutic approaches that frustrate these systems, leading to more effective use of anti-malarials. Here we use protein association networks to broaden our understanding of the systems impacted by and/or implicated in the heat shock response.

Keywords: malaria parasite; heat shock response; systems biology; Plasmodium falciparum; protein association networks; temperature change; anti-malarial drugs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCBDD.2014.066554

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.369 - 383

Published online: 25 Apr 2015 *

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