Methylene blue was synthesized by Caro in 1876 at BASF, a chemical company. Six years later, Koch employed methylene blue when he discovered the tubercle bacillus.
Upon infection and development within human erythrocytes, P. falciparum induces alterations to the infected RBC morphology and bio-mechanical properties to eventually rupture the host cells through parasitic and host derived proteases of cysteine and serine families.
Migrating cells are guided in complex environments mainly by chemotaxis or structural cues presented by the surrounding tissue.
Here, we report that a protein kinase-mediated signalling pathway involving host RBC PAK1 and MEK1, which do not have orthologues in the Plasmodium kinome, is selectively stimulated in Plasmodium falciparum-infected (versus uninfected) RBCs, as determined by the use of phospho-specific antibodies directed against the activated forms of these enzymes.
Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by unicellular, obligate intracellular parasites of the genus Plasmodium.
Erythrocyte invasion by Plasmodium merozoites is a complex, multistep process that is mediated by a number of parasite ligand-erythrocyte receptor interactions.
The molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation in apicomplexan parasites remain poorly understood.
Although microscopy remains the most appropriate method for clinical malaria diagnosis in field settings, molecular diagnostics such as real-time PCR offer a more reliable means to detect malaria parasites, particularly at low levels.
With a view to developing putatively neutral markers based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium vivax, we utilized the published whole genome sequence information of P. falciparum and P. vivax to find a ~200 kb conserved syntenic region between these two species.
Tudor Staphylococcal Nuclease (p100 or SND1), a member of the micronuclease family is a multifunctional protein that plays a key role(s) in transcription and splicing processes in many eukaryotic cells.
