Publications by authors named "Amanda Blackwell"

Malaria parasites have evolved unusual metabolic adaptations that specialize them for growth within heme-rich human erythrocytes. During blood-stage infection, parasites internalize and digest abundant host hemoglobin within the digestive vacuole. This massive catabolic process generates copious free heme, most of which is biomineralized into inert hemozoin.

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malaria parasites retain an essential mitochondrional electron transport chain (ETC) that is critical for growth within humans and mosquitoes and is a key antimalarial drug target. ETC function requires cytochromes and , which are unusual among heme proteins due to their covalent binding to heme via conserved CXXCH sequence motifs. Heme attachment to these proteins in most eukaryotes requires the mitochondrial enzyme holocytochrome synthase (HCCS) that binds heme and the apo cytochrome to facilitate the biogenesis of the mature cytochrome or .

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Malaria parasites have evolved unusual metabolic adaptations that specialize them for growth within heme-rich human erythrocytes. During blood-stage infection, parasites internalize and digest abundant host hemoglobin within the digestive vacuole. This massive catabolic process generates copious free heme, most of which is biomineralized into inert hemozoin.

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Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the impact of internally guided (IG) versus externally guided (EG) adapted tango (AT) dance training (i.e., dancing the IG "Leader" role or the EG "Follower" role), on motor and non-motor functions in individuals with Parkinson's disease and freezing of gait (PD-FOG).

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Article Synopsis
  • Malaria parasites have a unique mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) critical for their growth in both humans and mosquitoes, presenting a potential target for antimalarial drugs.
  • The attachment of heme to cytochromes in these parasites relies on two separate homologs of holocytochrome synthase (HCCS), unlike humans which have a single enzyme for this process.
  • Research using CRISPR/Cas9 showed that knocking down one HCCS specifically impairs one type of cytochrome's production and disrupts ETC function, highlighting the distinct roles of these enzymes in the parasite's mitochondrial biogenesis and providing a basis for targeting the ETC in malaria treatment.
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This single-case multiple baseline design investigation set out to determine the effectiveness of using a telepractice service delivery model to coach caregivers in Antigua & Barbuda in the use of Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) language support strategies with a child with language impairment. A slightly modified version of the Teach-Model-Coach-Review (TMCR) method was used during virtual instruction to train a caregiver on the language support strategies of environmental arrangement, matched turns, expansions, and time delay with milieu prompting. The caregiver attended sessions three times a week for up to 45 minutes for four weeks.

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Unlabelled: The mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) of malaria parasites is a major antimalarial drug target, but critical cytochrome functions remain unstudied and enigmatic. Parasites express two distinct cyt homologs ( and -2) with unusually sparse sequence identity and uncertain fitness contributions. cyt -2 is the most divergent eukaryotic cyt homolog currently known and has sequence features predicted to be incompatible with canonical ETC function.

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