Vacuolar H⁺-ATPase localized in plasma membranes of malaria parasite cells, Plasmodium falciparum, is involved in regional acidification of parasitized erythrocytes

Recent biochemical studies involving 2',7'-bis-(2-carboxyethyl)-5,6-carboxylfluorescein (BCECF)-labeled saponin-permeabilized and parasitized erythrocytes indicated that malaria parasite cells maintain the resting cytoplasmic pH at about 7.3, and treatment with vacuolar proton-pump inhibitors reduces the resting pH to 6.7, suggesting proton extrusion from the parasite cells via vacuolar H⁺-ATPase (Saliba, K. J., and Kirk, K. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 33213-33219). In the present study, we investigated the localization of vacuolar H⁺-ATPase in Plasmodium falciparum cells infecting erythrocytes. Antibodies against vacuolar H⁺-ATPase subunit A and B specifically immunostained the infecting parasite cells and recognized a single 67- and 55-kDa polypeptide, respectively. Immunoelectron microscopy indicated that the immunological counterpart of V-ATPase subunits A and B is localized at the plasma membrane, small clear vesicles, and food vacuoles, a lower extent being detected at the parasitophorus vacuolar membrane of the parasite cells. We measured the cytoplasmic pH of both infected erythrocytes and invading malaria parasite cells by microfluorimetry using BCECF fluorescence. It was found that a restricted area of the erythrocyte cytoplasm near a parasite cell is slightly acidic, being about pH 6.9. The pH increased to pH 7.3 upon the addition of either concanamycin B or bafilomycin A₁, specific inhibitors of vacuolar H⁺-ATPase. Simultaneously, the cytoplasmic pH of the infecting parasite cell decreased from pH 7.3 to 7.1. Neither vanadate at 0.5 mM, an inhibitor of P-type H⁺-ATPase, nor ethylisopropylamiloride at 0.2 mM, an inhibitor of Na⁺/H⁺-exchanger, affected the cytoplasmic pH of erythrocytes or infecting parasite cells. These results constitute direct evidence that plasma membrane vacuolar H⁺-ATPase is responsible for active extrusion of protons from the parasite cells.