Effect of malaria parasite shape on its alignment at erythrocyte membrane.

During the blood stage of malaria pathogenesis, parasites invade healthy red blood cells (RBC) to multiply inside the host and evade the immune response. When attached to RBC, the parasite first has to align its apex with the membrane for a successful invasion. Since the parasite's apex sits at the pointed end of an oval (egg-like) shape with a large local curvature, apical alignment is in general an energetically unfavorable process.

Stochastic bond dynamics facilitates alignment of malaria parasite at erythrocyte membrane upon invasion.

Malaria parasites invade healthy red blood cells (RBCs) during the blood stage of the disease. Even though parasites initially adhere to RBCs with a random orientation, they need to align their apex toward the membrane in order to start the invasion process. Using hydrodynamic simulations of a RBC and parasite, where both interact through discrete stochastic bonds, we show that parasite alignment is governed by the combination of RBC membrane deformability and dynamics of adhesion bonds.

Importance of Erythrocyte Deformability for the Alignment of Malaria Parasite upon Invasion.

Invasion of erythrocytes by merozoites is an essential step for the survival and progression of malaria parasites. To invade red blood cells (RBCs), apicomplexan parasites have to adhere with their apex to the RBC membrane. This necessary apex-membrane contact (or alignment) is not immediately established because the orientation of a free merozoite with respect to the RBC membrane is random when an adhesion contact first occurs.