La Trobe
fcimb-11-630812.pdf (1.44 MB)

Eryptosis and Malaria: New Experimental Guidelines and Re-Evaluation of the Antimalarial Potential of Eryptosis Inducers

Download (1.44 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2021-04-12, 04:56 authored by Coralie BouletCoralie Boulet, Taylah GaynorTaylah Gaynor, Ana-Teresa CarvalhoAna-Teresa Carvalho
Erythrocytes possess an unusual programmed cell death mechanism termed eryptosis, and several compounds have been previously claimed to induce eryptosis in vitro. Malaria parasites (genus Plasmodium) reside in erythrocytes during the pathogenic part of their life cycle, and the potential of several eryptosis inducers to act as antimalarials has been tested in recent years. However, the eryptosis-inducing capacity of these compounds varies significantly between eryptosis-focused studies and malaria investigations. Here, we investigated the reasons for these discrepancies, we developed a protocol to investigate eryptosis in malaria cultures and we re-evaluated the potential of eryptosis inducers as antimalarials. First, we showed that eryptosis read-out in vitro is dependent on culture conditions. Indeed, conditions that have consistently been used to study eryptosis do not support P. falciparum growth and prime erythrocytes for eryptosis. Next, we defined culture conditions that allow the detection of eryptosis while supporting P. falciparum survival. Finally, we selected six eryptosis-inducers based on their clinical use, molecular target and antimalarial activities, and re-evaluated their eryptosis inducing capacities and their potential as antimalarials. We demonstrate that none of these compounds affect the viability of naïve or P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes in vitro. Nevertheless, three of these compounds impair parasite development, although through a mechanism unrelated to eryptosis and yet to be elucidated. We conclude that careful consideration of experimental set up is key for the accurate assessment of the eryptosis-inducing potential of compounds and their evaluation as potential antimalarials.

Funding

Funding support was provided to TC by La Trobe University Start up Grant (2018-2021), Infrastructure grants (2017, 2019, 2020), and Research Focus Area grant (2018-2020). CB received a Postgrad Research scholarship from La Trobe University.

History

Publication Date

2021-03-12

Journal

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Volume

11

Article Number

630812

Pagination

15 pages

Publisher

Frontiers Media

ISSN

2235-2988

Rights Statement

The Author reserves all moral rights over the deposited text and must be credited if any re-use occurs. Documents deposited in OPAL are the Open Access versions of outputs published elsewhere. Changes resulting from the publishing process may therefore not be reflected in this document. The final published version may be obtained via the publisher’s DOI. Please note that additional copyright and access restrictions may apply to the published version.

Usage metrics

    Journal Articles

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC