Figure 4. Artemisinin induces DNA damage response in P. falciparum.

(A) The synchronized P. falciparum cells were treated with clinical doses of artemisinin (1 μM) and MMS (0.05%) for 6 hr at the trophozoite stage. Genes with similar differential transcription for both MMS and artemisinin are shown in the heat map. The experiments were done in triplicates. (p value < 0.05, FDR < 0.05) (B) Pathways, which are commonly up-regulated by both artemisinin and MMS. Schizont (C) and Trophozoite stages (D) of parasites were treated with clinical doses of different anti-malarial drug for 6 hr: artemisinin (1 μM), chloroquine (30 μM), mefloquine (5 μM) and pyrimethamine (5 μM) and with MMS (0.05%). Immunoblot analyses were carried out using primary antibodies probed against the core histone modifications.