The Role of the Amino Acid Side Chain Residues in the Biological Action of Angiotensin II, Against the Malaria Sporozoites

摘要

Malaria is an acute and febrile infectious disease caused by protozoa of the Plasmodium genus. It is transmitted by mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus. The World Health Organization has reported that 250-500 million people get malaria annually, resulting in around one million deaths [1]. However, efforts to control this disease are hampered by drug resistance in parasites, insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, and the lack of an effective vaccine [2]. Recently, we have reported a research, which showed the angiotensin II (AII) action in mature sporozoites of Plasmodium gallinaceum [3]. In an attempt to establish the importance of the amino acids side-chains on the biological activity, we synthesized a series of Ala-scan AII analogues, analyzing all regions of the molecule (Table 1).