Biocrystallization

[1] This may be a stress response, a normal part of metabolism such as processes that dispose of waste compounds, or a pathology.

Inhibitors of biocrystallization are of interest in drug design efforts against lithiasis and against pathogens that feed on blood, since many of these organisms use this process to safely dispose of heme.

Under severe stress conditions the bacteria Escherichia coli protects its DNA from damage by sequestering it within a crystalline structure.

[3][4] Blood feeding organisms digest hemoglobin and release high quantities of free toxic heme.

Heme biocrystallization has been found in blood feeding organisms of great medical importance including Plasmodium, Rhodnius and Schistosoma.

The biocrystallization inhibitor chloroquine was developed in Germany in the 1930s. For 20 years Chloroquine was a "magic bullet".