Host Responses in Malaria Disease Evaluated Through Nuclear Magnetic Resonance–Based Metabonomics

Malaria is a widespread disease caused by several species of Plasmodium. The parameters that render the hosts susceptible to severe disease complications are not completely understood. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)–based studies offer a convenient platform to investigate the disease process in a noninvasive, nondestructive, and unbiased manner.NMR-based metabonomics allows a systems biological view of the global changes in host metabolism due to the parasite infection. Parasite-infected host red blood cells influence the neighboring uninfected host red blood cells metabolically. In the murine model of malaria, a sexually dimorphic host response is observed upon parasitic infection. Also the animals that are prone to cerebral malaria have different metabolic status vis-a-vis the ones that do not. Early prediction of susceptibility to cerebral malaria may be explored using such metabonomic methods.