Project description:Transcriptomic Analysis of Cultured Sporozoites of P. falciparum RNA-seq reads from each of three developmental stages (2 replicates per sample) were mapped to the reference Plasmodium falciparum genome, and gene expression levels were calculated for each sample.
Project description:P. falciparum NF54 proliferates under micro-aerophilic conditions in an environment of 3% O2, 4% CO2, 93% N2. This strain was gradually adapted to proliferate under standard tissue culture conditions of 5% CO2/95% air (~19% O2) to generate P. falciparum HOX. We compared global gene expression profiles of the two strains to identify differences, if any.
Project description:P. falciparum NF54 proliferates under micro-aerophilic conditions in an environment of 3% O2, 4% CO2, 93% N2. This strain was gradually adapted to proliferate under standard tissue culture conditions of 5% CO2/95% air (~19% O2) to generate P. falciparum HOX. We compared global gene expression profiles of the two strains to identify differences, if any. Asynchronous cultures of P. falciparum NF54 and HOX propagated in O+ RBCs were processed and gene expression analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays. All cultures consised of 80% rings + trophozoites.
Project description:Plasmodium sporozoites are potent inducers of adaptive immunity, but the underlying mechanisms of sporozoite sensing by innate cells are still unclear. To gain insights into the activation of human innate immune cells by sporozoites as opposed to activation by blood stages, we co-cultured GFP expressing P. falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ) and blood stage parasites (PfRBC) with human monocytes. Comparing between the responses induced by PfSPZ and PfRBC revealed mostly genes with higher expression in PfSPZ-stimulated monocytes, most prominently COX-2 encoding PTGS2 and the chemokines CCL20 and CCL5. In addition, monocytes stimulated with PfSPZ displayed stronger plasma membrane injury than monocytes stimulated with PfRBC