Host porphobilinogen deaminase deficiency confers malaria resistance in Plasmodium chabaudi but not in Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium berghei during intraerythrocytic growth
An important component in host resistance to malaria infection are inherited mutations that give rise to abnormalities and deficiencies in erythrocyte proteins and enzymes. Understanding how such mutations confer protection against the disease may be useful for developing new treatment strategies. A mouse ENU-induced mutagenesis screen for novel malaria resistance-conferring mutations identified a novel nonsense mutation in the gene encoding porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD) in mice, denoted here as PbgdMRI58155. Heterozygote PbgdMRI58155 mice exhibited approximately 50% reduction in cellular PBGD activity in both mature erythrocytes and reticulocytes, although enzyme activity was approximately 10 times higher in reticulocytes than erythrocytes. When challenged with blood-stage P. chabaudi, which preferentially infects erythrocytes, heterozygote mice showed a modest but significant resistance to infection, including reduced parasite growth. A series of assays conducted to investigate the mechanism of resistance indicated that mutant erythrocyte invasion by P. chabaudi was normal, but that following intraerythrocytic establishment a significantly greater proportions of parasites died and therefore affected their ability to propagate. The Plasmodium resistance phenotype was not recapitulated in Pbgd-deficient mice infected with P. berghei, which prefers reticulocytes, or when P. falciparum was cultured in erythrocytes from patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), which had modest (20-50%) reduced levels of PBGD. Furthermore, the growth of Pbgd-null P. falciparum and Pbgd-null P. berghei parasites, which grew at the same rate as their wild-type counterparts in normal cells, were not affected by the PBGD-deficient background of the AIP erythrocytes or Pbgd-deficient mice. Our results confirm the dispensability of parasite PBGD for P. berghei infection and intraerythrocytic growth of P. falciparum, but for the first time identify a requirement for host erythrocyte PBGD by P. chabaudi during in vivo blood stage infection. IMPORTANCEThe causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium, adopts a parasitic lifestyle during erythrocyte infection, and as such relies on host cell factors for its survival and growth. Host-encoded mutations that alter the availability of these factors confer disease resistance, including several well-known genetic erythrocyte abnormalities that have arisen due to the historical evolutionary pressure of malaria. This study identified in mice a novel malaria resistance-conferring host mutation in the heme biosynthesis enzyme, porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD), and compared the relative requirements by Plasmodium for the host versus parasite-encoded forms of PBGD in both in vivo and in vitro settings. The findings demonstrated that parasite PBGD was dispensable, but that the host enzyme was important specifically during in vivo infection by P. chabaudi, and collectively suggest that Plasmodium requires a certain threshold of the enzyme to sustain its intraerythrocytic growth. Plasmodium may therefore be vulnerable to other interventions that limit host PBGD activity.