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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, July 2006, p. 2415-2419, Vol. 50, No. 7
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.01652-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63104
Received 30 December 2005/ Returned for modification 30 January 2006/ Accepted 20 April 2006
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Intraerythrocytic malaria parasites live in vacuoles derived from erythrocyte membranes (1, 6, 17, 19, 24), and the lipids used to promote FP dimerization are probably obtained from these membranes (14, 20) during the feeding process. Malaria parasites feed on the erythrocyte cytoplasm from within their vacuoles. In the process, they also ingest vacuolar membrane. Initially, this membrane lines the inside of young endosomes (22) and creates erythrocytoid bodies, which we define as inclusions of erythrocyte cytoplasm bounded by vestiges of the erythrocyte membrane. As the endosomes mature, they become acidic (7, 15, 26) and the extra membrane disappears (3, 22). It is well known that chloroquine affects this part of the feeding process by impairing endosomal maturation and causing hemoglobin-laden vesicles with double membranes to accumulate (8, 9, 11, 18, 21, 25, 27).
We now report that chloroquine accelerates hemoglobin denaturation in erythrocytes under acidic conditions. Based on this new observation and the similarity of erythrocytes and erythrocytoid bodies, we propose that the primary antimalarial action of chloroquine is to bind to and remove FP from oxidized hemoglobin, producing toxic FP-chloroquine complexes and an excess of denatured globin. Impaired endosomal maturation and masking of unsaturated lipids are probably caused by the toxic FP-chloroquine complexes and/or the excess of denatured globin.
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Suspensions of intact erythrocytes, lysates prepared from these suspensions, and the erythrocyte cytoplasm and stroma prepared from the lysates were used in the present experiments. The lysates were prepared by freezing suspensions of intact erythrocytes in liquid nitrogen and thawing. Commonly, the frozen suspensions were stored at 70°C for several days before they were thawed for an experiment. The erythrocyte cytoplasm and stroma were prepared by centrifuging freshly thawed lysates at 100,000 x g for 1 h at 4°C. After the soluble cytoplasm was removed, the insoluble stroma was reconstituted to the original volume of lysate in 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5), frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at 70°C until it was thawed for study. The cytoplasm was also frozen in liquid nitrogen and was stored at 70°C for future use. The length of storage at 70°C did not affect the outcome of experiments with any of the frozen preparations.
Aliquots of the various preparations were incubated under the conditions described in the legends to the figures to evaluate the effect of chloroquine. At the end of the incubation, the tubes were centrifuged at 3,400 x g for 5 min at room temperature to sediment the denatured hemoglobin, the precipitated FP, and other debris. Then the supernatants were removed and the amount of FP in the pellets was measured.
To measure FP, pellets derived from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes were mixed with 1 ml of 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5), frozen in liquid nitrogen, thawed at room temperature, diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5), mixed, and centrifuged at 3,400 x g for 5 min at room temperature to recover the pellets. These pellets were washed three more times by mixing them with 10 ml of 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and centrifugation. This procedure was performed to remove undenatured hemoglobin and other soluble proteins that might be trapped in the pellets.
The washed pellets were suspended in 1 ml of 2.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate in the standard medium; sodium hydroxide was added to achieve a predetermined concentration of 0.25 mM or less, depending on the concentration needed to solubilize the FP; and the mixture was allowed to stand at room temperature for an hour. The absorbance of this solution at 700 nm was then subtracted from the absorbance at 401 nm to correct for turbidity, and the concentration of FP was calculated from the difference by using an extinction coefficient of 90.8 mM1 for the absorbance of FP at 401 nm (2). The FP in these thoroughly washed pellets was considered to represent either the FP still present in denatured hemoglobin or the FP released from denatured hemoglobin. Therefore, four molecules of FP were considered to represent one molecule of denatured hemoglobin.
To determine the background value for denatured hemoglobin, lysate derived from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes was added to 10 ml of ice-cold 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and immediately centrifuged at 3,400 x g for 5 min at room temperature. Then, the supernatant was removed and the pellet was mixed with 1 ml of 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5), frozen in liquid nitrogen, thawed, washed, and used for FP measurement, all as described above. Background values were measured for each set of experiments and were used to make appropriate corrections to the data.
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FIG. 1. Effect of chloroquine on hemoglobin denaturation. Suspensions of intact erythrocytes or lysates, each prepared from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and incubated for 1 h at 38°C under room air in the presence or the absence of chloroquine. Shaded bars indicate the presence of 500 µM chloroquine. Means ± standard deviations for five experiments are shown. For each preparation, the effect of chloroquine was significant (P < 0.001, t test). The differences between intact erythrocytes and lysates were not statistically significant. The data are expressed as the nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin minus the background per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour. The background value was 24 ± 13 nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin per ml of packed erythrocytes for this set of experiments.
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FIG. 2. Effect of erythrocyte stroma on hemoglobin denaturation. Aliquots of erythrocyte cytoplasm, each derived from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, and various amounts of erythrocyte stroma were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and incubated for 1 h at 38°C under room air. The ordinate shows the nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin minus the background per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour, and the abscissa shows the amounts of stroma derived from various volumes of erythrocytes (expressed in terms of µl of packed erythrocytes). Solid symbols indicate the presence of 100 µM chloroquine. Means ± standard deviations are shown for four experiments except for zero time in the presence of 100 µM chloroquine, when there were only three experiments.
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FIG. 3. Relationship between chloroquine concentration and hemoglobin denaturation. Suspensions of lysates, each prepared from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and incubated for 1 h at 38°C under room air in the absence of chloroquine or in the presence of various concentrations of chloroquine. The nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin produced per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour in the presence of chloroquine minus the amount produced in the absence of chloroquine are shown. In the absence of chloroquine, 52 ± 12 nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin was produced per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour. Means ± standard deviations and the number of experiments performed at each concentration of chloroquine (in parentheses) are shown.
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FIG. 4. Effect of pH and temperature on hemoglobin denaturation. (Lower panel) Effect of pH. Suspensions of erythrocyte lysates, each prepared from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate at pH 5 or 6 or with the standard medium at pH 7.4 and incubated for 1 h at 38°C under room air. Shaded bars indicate the presence of 100 µM chloroquine. The data are expressed as nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin minus the background per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour. Means ± standard deviations are shown for four experiments. (Upper panel) Effect of temperature. Suspensions of erythrocyte lysates, each prepared from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and incubated under room air for 1 h at the indicated temperatures. Shaded bars indicate the presence of 100 µM chloroquine. The data are expressed as nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin minus the background per ml of packed erythrocytes per hour. Means ± standard deviations for four experiments are shown.
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FIG. 5. Time course of the effect of chloroquine on hemoglobin denaturation. Suspensions of erythrocyte lysates, each prepared from 50 µl of packed erythrocytes, were diluted to 10 ml with 150 mM sodium acetate (pH 5) and incubated for various lengths of time at 38°C under room air in the presence or the absence of 100 µM chloroquine. The nanomoles of denatured hemoglobin minus the background per ml of packed erythrocytes are shown for each time interval. Solid symbols indicate the presence of 100 µM chloroquine. The dashed line shows the difference between incubations in the presence and the absence of chloroquine. Means ± standard deviations are shown for four experiments.
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Presumably, membrane lipids in the stroma promote hemoglobin oxidation and denaturation. In support of this possibility, extensive oxidation of purified hemoglobin in the presence of purified lipids has been observed by other investigators (16, 23). By comparison, the amount of hemoglobin denaturation in our preparations was relatively small. It should be noted, however, that we studied erythrocytes and whole lysates, which would be expected to contain antioxidants and other modulators that would protect hemoglobin from oxidation.
The stroma is also required for chloroquine to accelerate hemoglobin denaturation (Fig. 2). We interpret this requirement to mean that chloroquine does not initiate hemoglobin denaturation. Instead, it apparently acts only after an initial oxidation step. Since oxidative denaturation of hemoglobin can alter the structure of hemoglobin sufficiently to cause precipitation, it is reasonable to suppose that it also increases the accessibility of chloroquine to FP that is bound to globin. We propose that chloroquine acts as an antimalarial drug primarily by binding with a high affinity to the FP and removing it from globin. In this way, toxic FP-chloroquine complexes and an excess of denatured globin could be produced in endosomes. Since FP-chloroquine complexes have membrane toxicity (5), we suggest that they inhibit endosomal maturation, which ultimately would result in a reduction in hemoglobin degradation and cause the formation of hemoglobin-laden vesicles with double membranes.
With regard to the masking of lipids, we have reported previously that unsaturated lipids in erythrocyte membranes, although they are capable of promoting FP dimerization when they are separated from protein, normally are masked and are unavailable for the promotion of FP dimerization (12). It is possible, therefore, that unsaturated lipids in the membranes of erythrocytoid bodies, which are derived from erythrocyte membranes, remain masked until the membranes are degraded. If so, inhibition of endosomal maturation due to the toxicity of FP-chloroquine complexes could allow unsaturated lipids to remain masked and unavailable to promote FP dimerization yet leave them available to promote hemoglobin oxidation and to serve other functions. As an alternative possibility, denatured globin may bind to unsaturated lipids, mask them, and inhibit endosomal maturation. In support of the latter possibility, heat denaturation of lysates of parasitized erythrocytes inhibits FP dimerization (4). Further work is needed to determine the merits of these two possible ways to explain chloroquine-induced masking of the unsaturated lipids needed for FP dimerization.
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