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The video is fascinating, but I feel like asking Arthur Dent-like questions: How does the parasite know the red cell is around and how does it go toward the cell. Or do they get attached randomly, the movement in the video seemed pretty random, perhaps due to Brownian motion?
Aside from the implications of this for medical research (congrats to the team), I don't believe I've ever been so horrified by a video in my life. If I were to catch malaria, knowing what is going on internally..
It's easy to forget that scenes like this are still played out a million times per year.
The video is fascinating, but I feel like asking Arthur Dent-like questions: How does the parasite know the red cell is around and how does it go toward the cell. Or do they get attached randomly, the movement in the video seemed pretty random, perhaps due to Brownian motion?
SO, just to be a smart-aleck...
Jun8: Most cells have a variety of distinctive proteins embedded in their membranes peculiar to cells of that type. Other cells and other elements (think antibodies) may detect and respond to some of these proteins. I wouldn't be surprised to find that plasmodium has some such mechanism.
As for moving towards the cell, it probably doesn't take much in the bloodstream. Almost half of your blood's volume (45%) is cells, and about ninety-nine out of a hundred are red blood cells. With a cell for every cell-sized volume of fluid, that doesn't leave a lot of space between cells, so they're bumping up against each other all the time! It would probably be harder for a plasmodium to avoid hitting RBCs than to find one!
Very interesting bit at the end, too. It almost looks like the cell's becoming crenellated as water is forced or drawn out. That would usually happen in a hypertonic solution, where the concentration of solutes is higher outside the cell than inside, but I'm sure that's not changing, here. I wonder if the solutes inside the cell are being taken up by the plasmodium's offspring as they develop? I could see that "purifying" the water inside, thus driving it out, maybe?
Osmosis is a weird and wonderful thing...
Could someone elaborate on what's happening towards the end of that video, when the cell seems to crumple?
Could someone elaborate on what's happening towards the end of that video, when the cell seems to crumple?