Malaria caught on video breaking and entering into red blood cell | Hacker News Reader

Malaria caught on video breaking and entering into red blood cell

newscientist.com

136 pointsjonknee19 comments

The implications of this video are stunning. This is the closest we have ever been to understanding the invasion process of the parasite at a molecular level. Perhaps this will finally lead to a viable and effective vaccine for Malaria. This disease is a major killer in tropical and sub-tropical regions and any real vaccine can save literally millions of lives.

The abstract is at http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/abstract/S1931-3128(10... The actual PDF is at http://download.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/pdf/PIIS193131281...

EDITed for PDF link

You're being a bit hyperbolic[1]. The video included in the article, at least, is low resolution, jittery, and grainy. It says absolutely nothing about the methods used by Malaria to enter the blood cells, much less "at a molecular level." It's cool, of course, just not quite as cool as you're suggesting. Admittedly, the fact that the second parasite completely ignored the infected cell is really interesting - if how it knew to ignore the infected cell was known, that would be a huge advance.

[1] And I'm being a bit cynical. Hopefully we'll balance out.

Possibly. I should have been more clear though; I really meant 'study' instead of 'video'. I'm ecstatic because of this: 'The ability to dissect in detail the spatial and temporal localization of key molecular and cellular events during P. falciparum merozoite invasion provides a powerful platform to explore strategies to block the process.'

That's from the discussion section in the paper.

Your cynicism is highly warranted though. Its taken awfully long for us to understand this common and curable disease; there's no reason to expect that a usable vaccine will be available soon.

I had always just assumed that deformation of blood cells as portrayed by computer graphics in shows like CSI or House were arbitrary and 'artistic representations'. But the last 15 seconds of this video are outstanding.

That's the coolest part of the video imo. Super creepy.

Even creepier when you realize that there's actually a bunch of fresh parasites inside waiting to do the same to your other cells.

Aside from the implications of this for medical research (congrats to the team), I don't believe I've ever been so horrified by a video in my life. If I were to catch malaria, knowing what is going on internally..

No kidding. I lived in Zaire back when it was still called Zaire, and woke up one morning to a cacophony of wailing...it was the funeral procession of a girl down the street who had died of cerebral malaria the night before. I was only 5 years old, but I believe that put a stop to my complaining about the bitter pills we had to take.

It's easy to forget that scenes like this are still played out a million times per year.

The video is fascinating, but I feel like asking Arthur Dent-like questions: How does the parasite know the red cell is around and how does it go toward the cell. Or do they get attached randomly, the movement in the video seemed pretty random, perhaps due to Brownian motion?

Yep, Brownian motion. Proof of the existence of the atom, even!

While the macro movement will be dominated random brownian style motion I wouldn't rule out that at a fine level it can seek out the red blood cells - plasmodium cells certainly have motor functions and can move themselves around.

Fun stuff! And just as I'm starting my hematology course!

SO, just to be a smart-aleck...

Jun8: Most cells have a variety of distinctive proteins embedded in their membranes peculiar to cells of that type. Other cells and other elements (think antibodies) may detect and respond to some of these proteins. I wouldn't be surprised to find that plasmodium has some such mechanism.

As for moving towards the cell, it probably doesn't take much in the bloodstream. Almost half of your blood's volume (45%) is cells, and about ninety-nine out of a hundred are red blood cells. With a cell for every cell-sized volume of fluid, that doesn't leave a lot of space between cells, so they're bumping up against each other all the time! It would probably be harder for a plasmodium to avoid hitting RBCs than to find one!

Very interesting bit at the end, too. It almost looks like the cell's becoming crenellated as water is forced or drawn out. That would usually happen in a hypertonic solution, where the concentration of solutes is higher outside the cell than inside, but I'm sure that's not changing, here. I wonder if the solutes inside the cell are being taken up by the plasmodium's offspring as they develop? I could see that "purifying" the water inside, thus driving it out, maybe?

Osmosis is a weird and wonderful thing...

Could someone elaborate on what's happening towards the end of that video, when the cell seems to crumple?

Its being digested from the inside by the parasite and a bunch of new parasites are about to burst out.

That's amazing. Is this real-time? Or fast-forwarded motion?

Anyone know how to actually download this video?

I've tried quite a few basic tricks and website usuals, including file2hd, keepvid, firefox extension, etc. Nothing quite as simple as "page info" and sifting through to the .swf file.

Best I can tell is there is some sort of embedded custom java player by brightcove.com

Any thoughts or pointers greatly appreciated.

A friend of mine died of malaria last year - this was difficult to watch. But for sure an amazing achievement for science.

The video could be made more visually pleasing and the shapes easier to identify with a little filtering. Perhaps a Gaussian blur followed by edge detection and contrast enhancement, maybe with some false color added for fun.

So cool.

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