<\/p>\n\n
O peso da doen\u00e7a est\u00e1 distribu\u00eddo de forma desproporcionada por todo o mundo. Um dos factores que contribuem diretamente para esta assimetria \u00e9 a mal\u00e1ria – mais de 200 milh\u00f5es de novas infec\u00e7\u00f5es e 400 mil mortes continuam a ocorrer todos os anos. Apesar deste fardo inaceitavelmente elevado em termos de sa\u00fade, econ\u00f3micos e sociais, os factores que ditam o in\u00edcio da doen\u00e7a grave e o resultado da infe\u00e7\u00e3o continuam a ser mal compreendidos, o que prejudica significativamente o combate a esta doen\u00e7a mortal.<\/p>\n\n
O nosso objetivo geral tem sido e continuar\u00e1 a ser a elucida\u00e7\u00e3o das quest\u00f5es mais fundamentais e concetualmente inovadoras das interac\u00e7\u00f5es hospedeiro-Plasmodium<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n Em trabalhos anteriores, desafi\u00e1mos o pressuposto generalizado de que o Plasmodium<\/em> pode infetar e replicar-se no interior dos hepat\u00f3citos sem ser detectado, mostrando que o Plasmodium<\/em> ativa uma resposta IFN de tipo I no f\u00edgado (Liehl et al., 2014. Nature Medicine). Na verdade, o trabalho do nosso laborat\u00f3rio mostra que o Plasmodium<\/em> em fase hep\u00e1tica requer interac\u00e7\u00f5es activas com a maquinaria celular do hospedeiro para evitar a elimina\u00e7\u00e3o. Identific\u00e1mos duas prote\u00ednas residentes na membrana do vac\u00faolo parasit\u00f3foro (PVM) do Plasmodium<\/em> que actuam para garantir a sobreviv\u00eancia do parasita: bloqueando a autofagia das c\u00e9lulas infectadas (Real et al. 2018. Nature Microbiology) e atrav\u00e9s da intera\u00e7\u00e3o com a actina da c\u00e9lula hospedeira, afectando a sua polimeriza\u00e7\u00e3o e eluindo as estruturas de actina utilizadas como parte das defesas citos\u00f3licas do hospedeiro (M’Bana et al. 2022. iScience).<\/p>\n\n Tamb\u00e9m identific\u00e1mos um fator do hospedeiro que medeia o efeito antag\u00f3nico de uma das fases do parasita sobre a outra (Portugal et al., 2011. Nature Medicine). Essa descoberta abriu caminho para elucidar como o Plasmodium<\/em> regula os n\u00edveis de ferro para sobreviver (Slavic et al., 2016. Nature Communications) e introduziu o conceito de que a disponibilidade de nutrientes e os h\u00e1bitos alimentares t\u00eam um forte impacto no estabelecimento e no curso de uma infe\u00e7\u00e3o por mal\u00e1ria, interferindo nas vias do hospedeiro e do parasita durante diferentes est\u00e1gios da infe\u00e7\u00e3o (Mancio-Silva et al., 2017. Nature; Zuzarte-Luis et al., 2017. Nature Microbiology; Marreiros et al, 2023. Communications Biology).<\/p>\n\n O nosso trabalho recente indica que a teia de interac\u00e7\u00f5es entre o hospedeiro e o Plasmodium<\/em> \u00e9, de facto, densamente tecida, com a fase hep\u00e1tica e a fase sangu\u00ednea a interagirem no sentido da patologia e da gravidade da doen\u00e7a (Chora et al., 2023. Immunity). Al\u00e9m disso, identific\u00e1mos uma terceira parte que determina a doen\u00e7a – a microbiota do hospedeiro (Mukherjee et al., 2022. Nature Communications).<\/p>\n\n Continuamos tamb\u00e9m a perseguir uma quest\u00e3o permanente – O que \u00e9 que o f\u00edgado tem de t\u00e3o especial? O nosso trabalho recente forneceu um perfil gen\u00e9tico unicelular abrangente de hepat\u00f3citos e parasitas em f\u00edgados infectados ao longo do tempo (Afriat et al., 2022. Nature), enriquecendo o nosso conhecimento sobre a mal\u00e1ria na fase hep\u00e1tica. Al\u00e9m disso, os nossos dados actuais mostram que o metabolismo especial do f\u00edgado \u00e9 a chave para modular a capacidade das esp\u00e9cies de Plasmodium<\/em> que infectam os mam\u00edferos e atingem taxas extraordin\u00e1rias de replica\u00e7\u00e3o para gerar dezenas de milhares de merozo\u00edtos infecciosos nos eritr\u00f3citos. Estas observa\u00e7\u00f5es abriram uma nova e excitante linha de investiga\u00e7\u00e3o destinada a revelar as consequ\u00eancias da elevada taxa de replica\u00e7\u00e3o e o impacto no resultado da infe\u00e7\u00e3o e na progress\u00e3o da doen\u00e7a.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":570,"template":"","acf":{"header_image":false,"ongoing_projects":"","selected_publications":"","useful_links":"","awards":"","funding":null,"sponsorship":null,"extra_information":false,"location":"Lisboa","subtitle":"Biologia e Fisiologia da Mal\u00e1ria","team_leader":[],"order":"250","related_research_areas":[1502],"lab_members":[{"ID":8101,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:43:24","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:24","post_content":"","post_title":"Sofia Marques","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"sofia-marques","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:43:24","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:24","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/sofia-marques\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7972,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_content":"","post_title":"J\u00e9ssica Cristina Domingos De Brito","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"jessica-cristina-domingos-de-brito","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/jessica-cristina-domingos-de-brito\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7975,"post_author":"1004","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:40","post_content":"","post_title":"M\u00e1rcia Filipa Carvalho Santos Saldanha","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"marcia-filipa-carvalho-santos-saldanha","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-04-16 09:46:32","post_modified_gmt":"2026-04-16 09:46:32","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/marcia-filipa-carvalho-santos-saldanha\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7963,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:43:41","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:41","post_content":"","post_title":"Mariana Vale Amaro De Sousa","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"mariana-vale-amaro-de-sousa","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:43:41","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:43:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/mariana-vale-amaro-de-sousa\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7741,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:44:14","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:44:14","post_content":"","post_title":"B\u00e1rbara Teixeira","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"barbara-teixeira","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:44:14","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:44:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/barbara-teixeira\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7354,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:26","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:26","post_content":"","post_title":"\u00c2ngelo Ant\u00f3nio Ferreira Chaves Do Ros\u00e1rio Chora","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"angelo-antonio-ferreira-chaves-do-rosario-chora","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:45:26","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:26","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/angelo-antonio-ferreira-chaves-do-rosario-chora\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7351,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:27","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:27","post_content":"","post_title":"Cl\u00e1udia Gomes","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"claudia-gomes","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:45:27","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/claudia-gomes\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7342,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_content":"","post_title":"In\u00eas Fernandes Bento","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"ines-fernandes-bento","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/ines-fernandes-bento\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7345,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_content":"","post_title":"Majeed Jamakhani","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"majeed-jamakhani","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/majeed-jamakhani\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7348,"post_author":"1004","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:28","post_content":"","post_title":"M\u00f3nica Da Luz Galocha","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"monica-da-luz-galocha","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-03-12 10:01:13","post_modified_gmt":"2026-03-12 10:01:13","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/monica-da-luz-galocha\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7339,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:29","post_content":"","post_title":"Yvonne Azasi","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"yvonne-azasi","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:45:29","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:45:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/yvonne-azasi\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":6688,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_content":"","post_title":"Alexandre Fernandes","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"alexandre-fernandes","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/alexandre-fernandes\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":6691,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_content":"","post_title":"Ana Parreira","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"ana-parreira","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:31","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/ana-parreira\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":6685,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:47:32","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:32","post_content":"","post_title":"Ana Rodrigues","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"ana-rodrigues","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 13:47:32","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:32","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/ana-rodrigues\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":6598,"post_author":"1002","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:47:51","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:47:51","post_content":"","post_title":"Of\u00e9lia Lu\u00eds Nhambirre","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"ofelia-luis-nhambirre","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-05-27 17:33:21","post_modified_gmt":"2025-05-27 17:33:21","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/ofelia-luis-nhambirre\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":8401,"post_author":"1004","post_date":"2025-05-27 13:42:44","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-27 13:42:44","post_content":"","post_title":"Maria Mota","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"maria-manuel-mota","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-03-13 10:02:14","post_modified_gmt":"2026-03-13 10:02:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/people\/maria-manuel-mota\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"list_image":{"ID":10871,"id":10871,"title":"Maria Motas","filename":"Maria-Motas.png","filesize":478780,"url":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas.png","link":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/o-nosso-trabalho\/laboratorios\/laboratorio-maria-mota\/maria-motas-2\/","alt":"","author":"1004","description":"","caption":"","name":"maria-motas-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1316,"date":"2026-03-13 09:31:07","modified":"2026-03-13 09:31:07","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":600,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas.png","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas.png","large-width":600,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas.png","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maria-Motas.png","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":600}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lab\/1316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lab"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/lab"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/menu-items\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gimm.pt\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}