Metabolomics in the fight against malaria |
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Authors: | Jorge L Salinas Jessica C Kissinger Dean P Jones Mary R Galinski |
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Institution: | 1.Division of Infectious Diseases;2.Department of Genetics, Institute of Bioinformatics, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA;3.Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Medicine;4.Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA |
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Abstract: | Metabolomics uses high-resolution mass spectrometry to provide a chemical fingerprint
of thousands of metabolites present in cells, tissues or body fluids. Such metabolic
phenotyping has been successfully used to study various biologic processes and
disease states. High-resolution metabolomics can shed new light on the intricacies of
host-parasite interactions in each stage of the Plasmodium life
cycle and the downstream ramifications on the host’s metabolism, pathogenesis and
disease. Such data can become integrated with other large datasets generated using
top-down systems biology approaches and be utilised by computational biologists to
develop and enhance models of malaria pathogenesis relevant for identifying new drug
targets or intervention strategies. Here, we focus on the promise of metabolomics to
complement systems biology approaches in the quest for novel interventions in the
fight against malaria. We introduce the Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center
(MaHPIC), a new systems biology research coalition. A primary goal of the MaHPIC is
to generate systems biology datasets relating to human and non-human primate (NHP)
malaria parasites and their hosts making these openly available from an online
relational database. Metabolomic data from NHP infections and clinical malaria
infections from around the world will comprise a unique global resource. |
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Keywords: | Plasmodium high-resolution metabolomics animal disease models systems biology omics MaHPIC host-pathogen interactions |
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