| Summary: | Background & objectives: The effect of P. falciparum on erythrocytes has been studied for a longtime at the population level but actual studies at the single cell level remain largely unexplored. Theaim of this study was to address the host-parasite relationship at the single cell level under twodifferent kinds of forces, an optical force and a fluid force. The questions addressed were about thebasic host-parasite interactions, but our findings have larger implications in diverse fields of parasitebiology.Methods: Erythrocytes were monitored under optical forces (using optical tweezers) and fluid forces(using microfluidic chambers) and dynamical images were captured in real-time video clips. Thesevideos were then split into their respective frames so as to yield temporal information and variousparameters pertaining to membrane structure, ionic imbalance and interaction with different forceswere studied.Results: The results of this study mainly bring to fore the inherent differences between infected andnormal cell populations at the single cell level under various external forces. We probed three differentcriteria folding times, rotation speeds and rolling frequency to show inherent difference in variouscell populations and also the dependence of the above to the cycle of the parasite.Interpretation & conclusion: This study portrays the importance of single cell observations pertainingto the host-parasite relationship. It shows the effect the malarial parasite has on erythrocytes and howthe intrinsic property of the infected and its neighbouring uninfected cells change as compared tonormal erythrocytes. There are thus implications in the fields of cytoadherence, parasite invasionsand host immune evasion.
|
|---|
