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Article: Why malaria parasite affects red blood cells' deformability revealed
- Article from:
- The Hindustan Times
- Article date:
- May 27, 2007
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Report from the Asian News International brought to you by the Hindustan Times
Washington, May 27 -- A study led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found out why red blood cells start to lose their ability to deform, and squeeze through tiny blood vessels during the first 24 hours of invasion by the malaria-inducing parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
The researchers knocked out the gene for a parasite protein called RESA (ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen), and found that the protein, transferred from the parasite to the cell's interior molecular network, had caused red blood cells to become less deformable.
"This is the first time a particular ...