Characterization of the Products of the Heme Detoxification Pathway in Malarial Late Trophozoites by X-ray Diffraction

In a process inhibited by the quinoline antimalarial drugs, Plasmodia detoxify heme released during the degradation of hemoglobin by aggregating it into malarial pigment, an insoluble crystalline heme coordination 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) A; alpha = 90.200(2), beta = 96.806(3), gamma = 97.818(3) degrees and Z = 2. These results unambiguously demonstrate that hemozoin crystallites are identical to synthetic beta-hematin.