Department of Molecular Protozoology

Subjects:

1. Development of a recombinant vaccine based on the malaria protein SERA.
2. Development of a novel vaccine adjuvant and elucidation of its mechanism of action.
3. Study on host-parasite interaction of malaria infection.
4. Study on phylogeny and evolution of SERA multigene family in the genus Plasmodium.

Papers published in 2012

1. Plasmodium cynomolgi genome sequences provide insight into Plasmodium vivax and the monkey malaria clade.

   Shin-Ichiro Tachibana, Steven A Sullivan, Satoru Kawai, Shota Nakamura, Hyunjae R Kim, Naohisa Goto, Nobuko Arisue, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Hajime Honma, Masanori Yagi, Takahiro Tougan, Yuko Katakai, Osamu Kaneko, Toshihiro Mita, Kiyoshi Kita, Yasuhiro Yasutomi, Patrick L Sutton, Rimma Shakhbatyan, Toshihiro Horii, Teruo Yasunaga, John W Barnwell, Ananias A Escalante, Jane M Carlton and Kazuyuki Tanabe

   Nat Genet, 44 (9), 1051-1055, 2012.
2. The in silico screening and X-ray structure analysis of the inhibitor complex of Plasmodium falciparum orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase.

   Yasuhide Takashima, Eiichi Mizohata, Sudaratana R Krungkrai, Yoshifumi Fukunishi, Takayoshi Kinoshita, Tsuneaki Sakata, Hiroyoshi Matsumura, Jerapan Krungkrai, Toshihiro Horii and Tsuyoshi Inoue

   J Biochem, 152 (2), 133-138, 2012.
3. Age of the last common ancestor of extant Plasmodium parasite lineages.

   Toshiyuki Hayakawa, Shin-Ichiro Tachibana, Kenji Hikosaka, Nobuko Arisue, Atsushi Matsui, Toshihiro Horii and Kazuyuki Tanabe

   Gene, 502 (1), 36-39, 2012.
4. Transcutaneous immunization using a dissolving microneedle array protects against tetanus, diphtheria, malaria, and influenza.

   Kazuhiko Matsuo, Sachiko Hirobe, Yayoi Yokota, Yurika Ayabe, Masashi Seto, Ying-Shu Quan, Fumio Kamiyama, Takahiro Tougan, Toshihiro Horii, Yohei Mukai, Naoki Okada and Shinsaku Nakagawa

   J Control Release, 160 (3), 495-501, 2012.
5. Gibberellin biosynthetic inhibitors make human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum cells swell and rupture to death.

   Tomoko Toyama, Michiru Tahara, Kisaburo Nagamune, Kenji Arimitsu, Yoshio Hamashima, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Hiroshi Kawaide, Toshihiro Horii and Kazuyuki Tanabe

   PLoS One, 7 (3), e32246, 2012.
6. The Plasmodium Apicoplast Genome: Conserved Structure and Close Relationship of P. ovale to Rodent Malaria Parasites.

   Nobuko Arisue, Tetsuo Hashimoto, Hideya Mitsui, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Akira Kaneko, Satoru Kawai, Masami Hasegawa, Kazuyuki Tanabe and Toshihiro Horii

   Mol Biol Evol, 29 (9), 2095-2099, 2012.
7. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of orotate phosphoribosyltransferase from the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

   Yasuhide Takashima, Eiichi Mizohata, Keiji Tokuoka, Sudaratana R Krungkrai, Yukiko Kusakari, Saki Konishi, Atsuko Satoh, Hiroyoshi Matsumura, Jerapan Krungkrai, Toshihiro Horii and Tsuyoshi Inoue

   Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun, 68 (Pt 2), 244-246, 2012.
8. Geographic differentiation of polymorphism in the Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine candidate gene SERA5.

   Kazuyuki Tanabe, Nobuko Arisue, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Masanori Yagi, Takahiro Tougan, Hajime Honma, Marcelo U Ferreira, Anna Färnert, Anders Björkman, Akira Kaneko, Masatoshi Nakamura, Kenji Hirayama, Toshihiro Mita and Toshihiro Horii

   Vaccine, 30 (9), 1583-1593, 2012.
9. Antibodies reactive to Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen in children with burkitt lymphoma from ghana.

   Mercy Guech-Ongey, Masanori Yagi, Nirianne Marie Q Palacpac, Benjamin Emmanuel, Ambrose O Talisuna, Kishor Bhatia, D Cristina Stefan, Robert J Biggar, Francis Nkrumah, Janet Neequaye, Takahiro Tougan, Toshihiro Horii and Sam M Mbulaiteye

   Int J Cancer, 130 (8), 1908-1914, 2012.

Link

http://www.biken.osaka-u.ac.jp/