疟疾疫苗,感染红细胞 z-bo 2020-08-18 589

　　Malaria is a deadly disease caused by parasites invading red blood cells. The little-known reason this infection process is that it happens so quickly can explain why there is no approved malaria vaccine. Researchers use tools called laser tweezers to study the interaction between pathogenic parasites and red blood cells. The results of the study reveal surprising new insights that paved the way for the development of malaria biology and more effective drugs and vaccines.

　　"Using laser tweezers to study invading red blood cells has allowed us to control the process to an unprecedented level and helped us understand this important process at the single cell level." Senior author of the study, Wei Cantos Sanger Julian Renner of the Institute said.

　　The parasite that causes malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) usually leaves one red blood cell, invades another red blood cell within 1 minute, loses the ability to infect the host cell, and is released within 2-3 minutes. To study this short-lived incident, Renner and lead author Pietro Cicuta of the University of Cambridge used laser tweezers. The researchers used optical tweezers to capture a single parasite that had just emerged from red blood cells and donated it to other red blood cells. This shows that the technology is suitable for learning the invasion process. Eina and Schicta used laser tweezers to measure the strength of the parasites attached to red blood cells. They found that adhesion may be mediated by multiple weak interactions, which may interfere with the binding of drugs or antibodies. In addition, the team used technology to show how three different anti-invasive drugs affect the parasite-red blood cell interaction.

　　These results indicate that laser tweezers are a powerful tool for studying the biology and drug mechanism of malaria at the individual cell level. Einer said: "We are now planning to use this technology to analyze the invasion process and understand the function of genes and proteins in each step." "This allows us to design better inhibitors or vaccines for multiple steps, while Prevent invasion."