Description: Stochastic bond dynamics facilitates alignment of malaria parasite at erythrocyte membrane upon invasion

This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2020

Stochastic bond dynamics facilitates alignment of malaria parasite at erythrocyte membrane upon invasion

Malaria parasites invade healthy red blood cells (RBCs) during the blood stage of the disease. Even though parasites initially adhere to RBCs with a random orientation, they need to align their apex toward the membrane in order to start the invasion process. Using hydrodynamic simulations of a RBC a...

Personal Name(s):	Hillringhaus, Sebastian
	Dasanna, Anil K / Gompper, Gerhard / Fedosov, Dmitry A (Corresponding author)
Contributing Institute:	JARA - HPC; JARA-HPC Theoretische Physik der Lebenden Materie; IBI-5
Published in:	eLife, 9 (2020) S. e56500
Imprint:	Cambridge eLife Sciences Publications 2020
DOI:	10.7554/eLife.56500
PubMed ID:	32420874
Document Type:	Journal Article
Research Program:	Formation of Polymer-Particle Aggregates in Blood Flow Physical Basis of Diseases
Link:	Get full text Get full text OpenAccess OpenAccess
	Publikationsportal JuSER

Please use the identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56500 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/25308 in citations.

Malaria parasites invade healthy red blood cells (RBCs) during the blood stage of the disease. Even though parasites initially adhere to RBCs with a random orientation, they need to align their apex toward the membrane in order to start the invasion process. Using hydrodynamic simulations of a RBC and parasite, where both interact through discrete stochastic bonds, we show that parasite alignment is governed by the combination of RBC membrane deformability and dynamics of adhesion bonds. The stochastic nature of bond-based interactions facilitates a diffusive-like re-orientation of the parasite at the RBC membrane, while RBC deformation aids in the establishment of apex-membrane contact through partial parasite wrapping by the membrane. This bond-based model for parasite adhesion quantitatively captures alignment times measured experimentally and demonstrates that alignment times increase drastically with increasing rigidity of the RBC membrane. Our results suggest that the alignment process is mediated simply by passive parasite adhesion.