RESEARCH ARTICLE


Protein Kinase-Regulated Inwardly Rectifying Anion and Organic Osmolyte Channels in Malaria-Infected Erythrocytes



Guillaume Bouyer, Serge L.Y. Thomas, Stéphane Egée*, 1, 2, 3
1 Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR 7150, Equipe Physiologie Comparée des Erythrocytes, Station Biologique, B. P. 74, 29682 Roscoff cedex, France
2 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 7150, Equipe Physiologie Comparée des Erythrocytes, Station Biologique, B. P. 74, 29682 Roscoff cedex, France
3 Université Européenne de Bretagne, UMR 7150, Equipe Physiologie Comparée des Erythrocytes, Station Biologique, B. P. 74, 29682 Roscoff cedex, France


© 2010 Bouyer et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR 7150, Equipe Physiologie Comparée des Erythrocytes, Station Biologique, B. P. 74, 29682 Roscoff cedex, France; Tel: (33) 02 98 29 23 82; E-mail: egee@sb-roscoff.fr


Abstract

The intraerythrocytic amplification of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum induces new pathways of solute permeability in the host cell's membrane. These pathways play a pivotal role in parasite development by supplying the parasite with nutrients, disposing of the parasite's metabolic waste and organic osmolytes, and adapting the host's electrolyte composition to the parasite's needs. During the last ten years, electrophysiological investigations strongly supported earlier evidence obtained by transport and pharmacological studies that this new permeability pathway, which is induced by the parasite in the host cell membrane, is constituted by anion-selective channels. This review surveys the evidences acquired using the patch-clamp technique and discuss the hypothesis that protein kinase A is an effector of the signalling pathway leading to the activation of endogenous channels upon infection.

Keywords: Erythrocyte, Plasmodium, new permeation pathways, protein kinase A, ion channel.