rhodoquinone and Hypoxia

Parasitic helminths infect over a billion humans. To survive in the low oxygen environment of their hosts, these parasites use unusual anaerobic metabolism - this requires rhodoquinone (RQ), an electron carrier that is made by very few animal species. Crucially RQ is not made or used by any parasitic hosts and RQ synthesis is thus an ideal target for anthelmintics. However, little is known about how RQ is made and no drugs are known to block RQ synthesis.

Topics: Anaerobiosis; Animals; Caenorhabditis elegans; Hypoxia; Kynurenine; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Survival Analysis; Ubiquinone