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Reduced Red Blood Cell Deformability in Vivax Malaria

Rathnam JTT 1 , Grigg MJ 2 , Dondorp AM 3 , William T 4 , Rajasekhar M 1 , Rajahram G 2 Show all authors , Simpson JA 1 , Barber BE 2 , Anstey NM 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • 2 Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
  • 3 Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 4 Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
J Infect Dis, 2025 Mar 17;231(3):e566-e569.
PMID: 39374370 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiae490

Abstract

Reduced deformability of both infected and uninfected red blood cells (RBCs) contributes to pathogenesis in Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Whole-blood RBC deformability (RBC-D) is not well characterized in Plasmodium vivax malaria. We used a laser-assisted optical rotational cell analyzer to measure the RBC-D in fresh whole-blood samples from Malaysian patients with vivax malaria (n = 25). Deformability of whole-blood RBCs, the vast majority of which were uninfected, was reduced in vivax malaria compared with controls (n = 15), though not to the same degree as in falciparum malaria (n = 90). Reduced RBC-D may contribute to the pathogenesis of vivax malaria, including splenic retention of uninfected RBCs.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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