Gliding Infection

Malaria has a major detrimental impact on many parts of the world. It’s caused by Plasmodium parasites, protozoa that are transferred to humans through an infected mosquito’s bite. The parasites get dropped off in the skin and then glide across the skin to find blood vessels and enter the blood, eventually infecting red blood cells. By tagging malaria parasites with a fluorescent protein, researchers tracked them after they’d been injected into the skin of mice. They saw that, at first, the protozoa move quickly and then slow down, and spend a long time following the curves of the blood vessels (seen here). But, many don’t enter the blood vessels successfully, showing that only certain areas of the vessels are suitable for the parasites to enter. By studying this interaction further, scientists could develop a vaccine to stop malaria parasites going any further than the skin.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Video from work by Christine Hopp and colleagues
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, August 2015