Physicochemical Aspects of thePlasmodium chabaudi-Infected Erythrocyte

Abstract

Membrane electrochemical potential is a feature of the molecular profile of the cell membrane and the two-dimensional arrangement of its charge-bearing molecules.Plasmodiumspecies, the causative agents of malaria, are intracellular parasites that remodel host erythrocytes by expressing their own proteins on erythrocyte membranes. Although various aspects of the modifications made to the host erythrocyte membrane have been extensively studied in some humanPlasmodiumspecies (such asPlasmodium falciparum), details of the structural and molecular biological modifications made to host erythrocytes by nonhumanPlasmodiumparasites have not been studied. We employed zeta potential analysis of erythrocytes parasitized byP. chabaudi, a nonhumanPlasmodiumparasite. From these measurements, we found that the surface potential shift was more negative forP. chabaudi-infected erythrocytes than forP. falciparum-infected erythrocytes. However, electron microscopic analysis of the surface ofP. chabaudi-infected erythrocytes did not reveal any modifications as compared with nonparasitized erythrocytes. These results suggest that differences in the membrane modifications found herein represent unique attributes related to the pathogenesis profiles of the two different malaria parasite species in different host animals and that these features have been acquired through parasite adaptations acquired over long evolutionary time periods.