Avaliação das vias metabólicas associadas à anemia causada por malária

Abstract

Malaria is an infectious disease triggered by exposure to protozoa of the Plasmodium genus, which are transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The global prevalence of P. falciparum and P. vivax species results in notable morbidity and mortality each year. The mechanisms of parasite-host interaction are not yet fully understood. The relationship between hemoglobin levels and systemic metabolism of patients infected by P. falciparum, P. vivax or coinfection with both species has been studied. This study aimed to investigate which metabolic pathways and metabolites are associated with hemoglobin levels during malaria. We conducted a search for public metabolomic data in the Metabolights database, whose cohorts included patients with malaria caused by P. falciparum, P. vivax or coinfection by both species. Metabolomics data acquired by liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC-MS) were processed, filtered, transformed, and normalized. We used the R statistical and graphical computing environment to analyze the association between hemoglobin levels and metabolites. In the mummichog program, various metabolites and metabolic pathways were significantly associated with hemoglobin levels in each group. We verified that the linoleate metabolism was significant in infections by both Plasmodium species, suggesting an important role for this pathway for malarial anemia. These findings promote the search for biomarkers of disease severity and potential therapeutic targets for malaria.