HOST HEME CATABOLISM IN DRUG-SENSITIVE AND DRUG-RESISTANT MALARIA

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  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 90  (4) , 767-770
Abstract
Chloroquine resistance has arisen in human and murine forms of malaria. CR Plasmodium berghei in mice does not produce the malaria pigment which is characteristic of the CS form. Determinations of CO production (i.e., host heme catabolism) by individual mice revealed that those infected with CS P. berghei produce only 1/4 as much CO as do CR infected mice at all levels of infection. These observations confirm the idea that malaria pigment is composed of precipitated host cell hemoglobin and suggest that drug resistance is accompanied by a basic alteration in parasite-mediated hemoglobin catabolism.