Parasitic Diseases

Several research groups investigate the molecular and immunological correlates of parasitic infection. In New Delhi, numerous Groups investigate the malaria parasite. The Malaria Biology (Malhotra) and the Parasite Cell Biology (Mohmmed) Groups functionally characterize proteins encoded by the malaria parasite that could serve as targets for the development of innovative antimalarial drugs or as vaccine candidates. The Structural Parasitology Group (Sharma) uses a structural approach to define the principles governing the biological functions of key malaria proteins, with a particular focus on the parasite’s translational machinery. The Transcriptional Regulation Group (Bhavesh) has a broad interest in elucidating the molecular interactions between protein and RNA involved in post-transcription regulation of mRNA, which it addresses by a combination of NMR spectroscopy and crystallography.

Highlights

The Malaria Biology and Parasite Cell Biology Groups in New Delhi have made important advances in understanding novel protein complexes on the malaria parasite surface and their post-translational modification, which play a key role in the invasion of red blood cells (Ekka et al., mBio. 2020, 11(5):e00166-20. Chourasia et al., 2020 Infect Immun.;88(2), thereby opening novel ways of potentially blocking parasite infection. Based upon their discovery of coalesced pathways of haemoglobin degradation and hemozoin formation (Chugh et al., 2013, Proc Natl Acad Sci;110(14):5392-7.), they have developed highly potent novel parasiticidal compounds with high potential to be developed as new antimalarials (PCT Int. Appl. (2019), WO 2019202609 A1 20191024; Indian Pat. Appl. (2019), IN 201811014401 A 20191018.; Aratikatla et al., ACS Omega. 2020, 5(45):29025-29037. Rana et al., 2020, Bioorg Med Chem.;28(1):115155). Studies from the Structural Parasitology Group in New Delhi identified novel hit compounds targeting parasite tRNA synthetases and structural basis on the inhibitory activities (Sharma et al., Nat Commun. 2021,12(1):343; Baragaña B. et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci 2019;116(14):7015-7020; Mishra e al., Acta Crystallogr. 2019; 75(Pt 11):714-724). Transcription Regulation group identified novel structural states of Chaperone YadV (Pandey et al., FEBS Lett. 2020,594(18):3057-3066).

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