Ds. Bohle et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PRODUCTS OF THE HEME DETOXIFICATION PATHWAY IN MALARIAL LATE TROPHOZOITES BY X-RAY-DIFFRACTION, The Journal of biological chemistry, 272(2), 1997, pp. 713-716
In a process inhibited by the quinoline antimalarial drugs, Plasmodia
detoxify heme released during the degradation of hemoglobin by aggrega
ting it into malarial pigment, an insoluble crystalline heme coordinat
ion polymer. Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction patterns for intact
desiccated malarial trophozoites and synthetic beta-hematin have been
measured; both materials correspond to a single crystalline triclinic
lattice with unit cell parameters a = 12.2176(4), b = 14.7184(5), c =
8.0456(3) Angstrom; alpha = 90.200(2), beta = 96.806(3), gamma = 97.81
8(3) degrees and Z = 2. These results unambiguously demonstrate that h
emozoin crystallites are identical to synthetic beta-hematin.