We have cloned, over-expressed and purified enolase from Plasmodium falciparum strain NF54 in Escherichia coli in active form, as an N-terminal His 6 -tagged protein. The sequence of the cloned enolase from the NF54 strain is identical to that of strain 3D7 used in full genome sequencing. The recombinant enolase (r-Pfen) could be obtained in large quantities ( 50 mg per litre of culture) in a highly purified form (> 95%). The purified protein gave a single band at 50 kDa on SDS/PAGE. MALDI-TOF analysis gave a mean ± SD mass of 51396 ± 16 Da, which is in good agreement with the mass calculated from the sequence. The molecular mass of r-Pfen determined in gel-filtration experiments was 100 kDa, indicating that P. falciparum enolase is a homodimer. Kinetic measurements using 2-phosphoglycerate as substrate gave a specific activity of 30 UAEmg )1 and K m2PGA ¼ 0.041 ± 0.004 mM. TheMichaelis constant for the reverse reaction (K mPEP ) is 0.25 ± 0.03 mM. pH-dependent activity measurements gave a maximum at pH 7.4-7.6 irrespective of the direction of catalysis. The activity of this enzyme is inhibited by Na + , whereas K + has a slight activating effect. The cofactor Mg 2+ has an apparent activation constant of 0.18 ± 0.02 mM. However, at higher concentrations, it has an inhibitory effect. Polyclonal antibody raised against pure recombinant P. falciparum enolase in rabbit showed high specificity towards recombinant protein and is also able to recognize enolase from the murine malarial parasite, Plasmodium yoelii, which shares 90% identity with the P. falciparum protein.

Background: Enolase (2-Phospho-D-glycerate hydrolase; EC 4.2.1.11) is one of the glycolytic enzymes, whose levels are highly elevated in malaria parasite infected red blood cells. In several organisms, enolases have been shown to have diverse non glycolytic (moonlighting) biological functions. As functional diversity of a protein would require diverse sub-cellular localization, the possibility of involvement of Plasmodium enolase in moonlighting functions was examined by investigating its sub-cellular distribution in the murine malarial parasite, Plasmodium yoelii.

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Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) downregulates the surface expression of major histocompatibility class II (MHC II) molecules on macrophages via modulating class II transactivator (CIITA) protein of the host cell. This results in decreased effector function of CD4(+) T cells. In macrophages, CIITA is transcribed by the promoters I (pI) and IV (pIV) and the corresponding gene products are referred to as type I and type IV CIITA, respectively. Earlier studies have mainly focused on CIITA transcribed by pIV; however, these studies also showed that type IV CIITA expression was transient and dispensable for MHC II expression. In the present study, we observed that the Mtb 6-kDa, early secreted antigen (ESAT6) inhibited interferon (IFN)-γ-induced type I as well as type IV CIITA, but, interestingly, inhibition of type I CIITA was found to be independent of Toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2), whereas that of type IV was TLR2 dependent. Moreover, we also present evidence to show that ESAT6-mediated inhibition was regulated via remodeling of the chromatin. We found that ESAT6 caused a decrease in the IFN-γ-stimulated methylation of the histone H3K4, as well as in the levels of histone acetylation at the CIITA pI locus in macrophages. We also found the involvement of mitogen-activated protein kinases ERK1/2 and p38 in the regulation of CIITA by ESAT6. In conclusion, our studies suggest that ESAT6 could inhibit the expression of type I and type IV CIITA through different pathways. Furthermore, ESAT6 could signal through putative receptors other than TLR2, and that the inhibition of IFN-γ-stimulated CIITA by ESAT6 was regulated at the chromatin level.