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Published in an article in the journal Nanoscale
Researchers at the IBEC reveal a new strategy to treat malaria
The Nanobioengineering group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has discovered a new localised treatment strategy for malaria that does not rely on the use of expensive antibodies. The results of the research have been published in the latest issue of the journal Nanoscale.
11/01/2013
In the article “Demonstration of specific binding of heparin to Plasmodium falciparum-infected vs non-infected red blood cells by single-molecule force spectroscopy”, by Juan José Valle-Delgado, Jorge Urbán and Xavier Fernàndez-Busquets, the researchers focused on the changes of the structure of the red blood cells (RBCs) infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Not only are parasitised RBCs (pRBCs) more likely to stick to normal blood cells and to others of their kind, forming clumps known as rosettes, they can also adhere to the walls of capillaries, making them narrower. These are characteristic events in severe malaria and can be fatal. A particular protein expressed on the surface of pRBCs, PfEMP1, is known to be involved in facilitating their attachment to each other and to the capillary walls, so disrupting this protein could help prevent this happening.
“We used heparin, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and type of polysaccharide, and pRBCs as a model to study GAG-pRBC interactions at the individual molecule level for the first time,” says Dr. Xavier Fernàndez-Busquets, a senior researcher in the Nanobioengineering group at the IBEC, a research centre funded by the Catalan government, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the University of Barcelona. “Using fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence-assisted cell sorting, and single-molecule force spectroscopy, we found that heparin binds specifically to infected RBCs, but not to uninfected cells.”
This could allow the development of pRBC-specific antimalarial therapies based on heparin or a similar molecule as targeting element. “It might be a much cheaper approach than the alternative of using antibodies,” explains Fernàndez-Busquets . “This is particularly important, since malaria is mainly found in the developing world.”
Not only are parasitised RBCs (pRBCs) more likely to stick to normal blood cells and to others of their kind, forming clumps known as rosettes, they can also adhere to the walls of capillaries, making them narrower. These are characteristic events in severe malaria and can be fatal. A particular protein expressed on the surface of pRBCs, PfEMP1, is known to be involved in facilitating their attachment to each other and to the capillary walls, so disrupting this protein could help prevent this happening.
“We used heparin, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and type of polysaccharide, and pRBCs as a model to study GAG-pRBC interactions at the individual molecule level for the first time,” says Dr. Xavier Fernàndez-Busquets, a senior researcher in the Nanobioengineering group at the IBEC, a research centre funded by the Catalan government, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the University of Barcelona. “Using fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence-assisted cell sorting, and single-molecule force spectroscopy, we found that heparin binds specifically to infected RBCs, but not to uninfected cells.”
This could allow the development of pRBC-specific antimalarial therapies based on heparin or a similar molecule as targeting element. “It might be a much cheaper approach than the alternative of using antibodies,” explains Fernàndez-Busquets . “This is particularly important, since malaria is mainly found in the developing world.”
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