Exploitation of a newly-identified entry pathway into the malaria parasite-infected erythrocyte to inhibit parasite egress.

ABSTRACT: While many parasites develop within host cells to avoid antibody responses and to utilize host cytoplasmic resources, elaborate egress processes have evolved to minimize the time between escaping and invading the next cell. In human erythrocytes, malaria parasites perforate their enclosing erythrocyte membrane shortly before egress. Here, we show that these pores clearly function as an entry pathway into infected erythrocytes for compounds that inhibit parasite egress. The natural glycosaminoglycan heparin surprisingly inhibited malaria parasite egress, trapping merozoites within infected erythrocytes. Labeled heparin neither bound to nor translocated through the intact erythrocyte membrane during parasite development, but fluxed into erythrocytes at the last minute of the parasite lifecyc

SUBMITTER: Glushakova S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5612957 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature