A new article from Frischknecht group (TP 1) was published in EMBO Molecular Medicine:
Malaria parasites face different biochemical and physical environments in their complex life cycle forcing them to adapt to both parameters. The parasite forms infecting the mosquito and transmitted by the mosquito both need to migrate but in different environments.
Here, new assay systems are developed to investigate the different type of movements and reveal differential adaptations to the elasticity of the environment. The work suggests that the parasites evolved to avoid sticking to soft endothelial cells for optimal targeting to the liver after a mosquito bite. The new assays might also be used to screen antibodies of chemicals to interrupt the earliest phase of a malaria infection.
↗ press release from University Hospital Heidelberg
Publication in EMBO Molecular Medicine:
Ripp J, Kehrer J, Smyrnakou X, Tisch N, Tavares J, Amino R, Ruiz de Almodovar C, Frischknecht F (2021). Malaria parasites differentially sense environmental elasticity during transmission, EMBO Molecular Medicine, www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/emmm.202113933