Last Updated: 28/11/2025
Investigating sequestration driven pathology in cerebral malaria in vitro and post-mortem using transcriptomics
Objectives
A model has been developed to mimic how falciparum sticks to brain blood vessels. Cells from the lining of brain blood vessels are grown in layers in the laboratory. These form an artificial blood vessel surface. Red blood cells are infected with real falciparum parasites and allowed to stick to this surface. The aim of this study is to see if this model accurately mimics changes occurring in patient’s brains during cerebral malaria.
Cerebral malaria is caused by P. falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite. P. falciparum infects red blood cells, which cause cerebral malaria when they stick to blood vessels in the brain, resulting in coma and seizures. Cerebral malaria affects 600,000 people per year, mostly children in Africa. Despite effective antimalarial drugs one fifth of patients die and a third develop disabilities. To identify treatments to decrease death and disability from cerebral malaria it is necessary to better understand how falciparum affects the brain. Cerebral malaria is difficult to study because experiments involving the brain cannot be performed on people. The objective will be achieved by comparing the laboratory model to brain samples from patients who have died of cerebral malaria, collected at autopsy. Using a technology called transcriptomics, a snapshot of the activity levels of all the genes can be compared between the model and cerebral malaria patients. If there are clear similarities between the model and cerebral malaria patients it would indicate that the model could be used to better understand this deadly disease and test treatments for malaria.
Mar 2016
$40,153
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