Is invasion efficiency in malaria controlled by pre-invasion events?
The invasion efficiency of Plasmodium falciparum merozoites was found to decrease with increasing red blood cell density, a finding relevant to protection strategies against falciparum malaria. The mechanism of this ‘density effect’ remained unexplained. Searching for possible explanations, we studied selected video recordings of the dynamic events during merozoite invasion and identified a pre-invasion stage as a crucial mediator of invasion efficiency. We suggest that the role of the pre-invasion stage is to induce the apical alignment of the merozoite, and propose a working hypothesis on its mechanism, with a crucial role for elevated intracellular Ca2+.
Related Questions
- How do I calculate the error on the efficiency of a cut, when the numbers of events before and after the cut were obtained as the signal components of two separate fits to signal plus background?
- If a controlled emission factor is used to calculate air emissions, is a control efficiency percentage also entered?
- Is invasion efficiency in malaria controlled by pre-invasion events?
