Chemical propulsion of hemozoin crystal motion in malaria parasites.

ABSTRACT: Malaria parasites infect red blood cells where they digest host hemoglobin and release free heme inside a lysosome-like organelle called the food vacuole. To detoxify excess heme, parasites form hemozoin crystals that rapidly tumble inside this compartment. Hemozoin formation is critical for parasite survival and antimalarial drug activity, but crystal motion and its underlying mechanism are unexplored. We used quantitative image analysis to determine the timescale of motion, which requires the intact vacuole but does not require the parasite itself. Using single-particle tracking and Brownian dynamics simulations with experimentally derived interaction potentials, we found that hemozoin motion exhibits unexpectedly tight confinement but is much faster than thermal diffusion. Hydrogen pero

SUBMITTER: Hastings EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12097498 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature