Flux Balance Analysis of Plasmodium falciparum Metabolism

• Main Author: Raja, Farhan
• Other Authors: Parkinson, John
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Flux balance analysis; Plasmodium falciparum; 0542; 0410
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/25900

Plasmodium falciparum is the causative agent of malaria, one of the world‟s most prevalent infectious diseases. The emergence of strains resistant to current therapeutics creates the urgent need to identify new classes of antimalarials. Here we present and analyse a constraints-based model (iMPMP427) of P. falciparum metabolism. Consisting of 427 genes, 513 reactions, 457 metabolites, and 5 intracellular compartments, iMPMP427 is relatively streamlined and contains an abundance of transport reactions consistent with P. falciparum’s observed reliance on host nutrients. Flux Balance Analysis simulations reveal the model to be predictive in regards to nutrient transport requirements, amino acid efflux characteristics, and glycolytic flux calculation, which are validated by a wealth of experimental data. Furthermore, enzymes deemed to be essential for parasitic growth by iMPMP427 lend support to several previously computationally hypothesized metabolic drug targets, while discrepancies between essential enzymes and experimentally annotated drug targets highlight areas of malarial metabolism that could benefit from further research.