Research  * People * Links

PARTNERS

There are several partners within the project,

• University of Exeter
• Coventry University
• Philips - Eindhoven, Nederlands
• KIT - Royal Tropical Institute - Amsterdam, Nederlands
• Metis Instruments -Leuven, Belgium

 
 
 

Department of Physics
Uppsala University
P.O. Box 530
SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone +46 18 471 00 00
Fax: +46 18 471 35 24

 
 
 
 

 

Research  * People * Links
 

MALARIA PARASITE - HOW DOES IT WORK?

Malaraia is caused by infection of the red blood cells by a tiny organism/ parasite called plasmodium, present in the female Anopheles mosquito. There are four types of parasites, causing malaria namely Plasmodium Falciparum which causes malignant malaria and can kill, while other forms, Plasmodium Ovale, vivax and malariae cause more benign types of malaria.

MECHANISM:
 

Picture taken from www.post.queensu.ca

There are several forms of the parasite:
- Gametocyte infects the mosquito and reproduces itself which is then passed onto the salivary glands of teh mosquito where it develops into the sporozoite form.
- Sporozoite is passed onto man when bitten by a mosquito injecting infected saliva into tiny blood vessels. These travel to the liver and divide to become merzoites.
- Merozoites are released from the liver  into the blood and are taken up by red blood cells. some are turned into ring-formed trophozoites, which further split into scizonts
- Scizonts burst the red blood cells releasing the merozoites.

The red blood cells are burst due to Hemoglobin degradation in which free heme is released and is actually toxic to the parasite. This is then polymersed to an inert polymer, the hemozoin (the malaria pigment) which is not harmful. However by this stage an estimated 60-80% of the hemoglobin is degraded. Hemozoin however can be detected in early stage parasites.

Structure of  Malaria Pigment - Hemozoin [REF: Nature Vol. 404, 2000, p. 307]

Uppsala University
P.O. Box 256
SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone +46 18 471 00 00
Fax: +46 18 471 20 00

 
 
 
 

 

Research  * People * Links
 

BLOOD

Blood distributes oxygen and nutrients through our bodies and carries carbon dioxide generated by the cells for exhalation. Transporting the large amount of oxygen required by the body and releasing it to the required tissues is finely tuned by a system that centers on Hemoglobin. 

Hemoglobin is the oxygen carrying pigment consisting of four subunits. Two alpha chains consisting of 144 residues and two beta chains made up of 146 residues. The subunits are arranged in a tetrahedral array held together by hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions and multiple ionic interactions, that take place at contact points between subunits. 
These interactions play a critical role in binding oxygen to hemoglobin, through the metal complex HEME.

Heme is a metal ion complex consisteing of a metal ion bonded via 'coordinate covalent bonds' to a small number of anions or ligands. It is a small prosthetic group associated with these oxygen binding proteins. The HEME comprises of a Protoporphyrin IX ring which has a chelated iron atom (Fe2+).

 
 

Uppsala University
P.O. Box 256
SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone +46 18 471 00 00
Fax: +46 18 471 20 00