Malaria parasite caught in action on film for the first time

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJan 19 2011

Australian researchers have managed to take pictures of microscopic malaria parasite as it invades a human red blood cell. This will provide a deeper understanding of the parasite’s behaviour and may help fight it. Up to 10% of the world’s population contract malaria every year and a million people, mostly pregnant women and children, die as a result of the parasite transmitted by infected mosquitoes.

According to lead researcher Dr Jake Baum, from the Melbourne-based Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), the team used a mix of conventional and super resolution microscopy, a technology new to Australia and based at the University of Technology Sydney, to snap the pictures. This follows the team’s earlier work which last year found a way to isolate the invasion which occurs at nanometric scale and “in the blink of an eye”.

Dr Baum said, “This is not the first study to see invasion but it is definitely the first study to be able to see it in all its glory… We can now resolve those two blurry dots into the kind of beautiful structure the parasite forms as it goes in… It provides us with a platform to understand how the parasite works and to understand how an antibody against malaria, which is a goal for vaccine development, could be achieved.” He revealed that the parasite carries a never-before-seen “window” that it attaches to a red blood cell and then injects itself through. Once inside it multiplies rapidly to create more such that burst out into the blood to cause the fever. Dr Baum said, “A golden goal of malaria researchers is the development of a vaccine that would protect you from disease but still allow you to develop an immune response… An effective vaccine would have such immeasurable benefits for humanity.”

The imaging technology, called OMX 3D SIM super resolution microscopy, is a powerful new 3D tool that captures cellular processes unfolding at nanometer scales. The team worked closely with Associate Professor Cynthia Whitchurch and Dr Lynne Turnbull from the i3 institute at UTS to capture these images.

The research is published on Thursday in the journal Cell Host & Microbe and it was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, The University of Melbourne, Canadian Institutes of Health, the University of Technology, Sydney, and the Australian Research Council.