Hemoglobin-digesting protease cascade

Hemoglobin digestion is a critical biochemical process for blood-feeding parasites such as ticks and Plasmodium (the causative agent of malaria), enabling them to extract essential nutrients from host hemoglobin. This catabolic process is driven by a coordinated cascade of intracellular proteases, including aspartic, cysteine, and metalloproteases, which break down hemoglobin at acidic pH, commonly found within digestive vacuoles. Inhibiting these proteases blocks parasite development, making them validated therapeutic targets for antimalarial and anti-tick strategies. However, "hemoglobin digestion" does not refer to a single molecule or receptor, but rather a process governed by several enzymes that should be considered individually as molecular targets.

Other names

Hemoglobinolytic cascadeHemoglobin catabolismHemoglobin proteolysis

Inhibition of hemoglobin-digesting proteases prevents parasites from metabolizing host hemoglobin, starving them of nutrients and halting development