Graphene oxide inhibits malaria parasite invasion and delays parasitic growth
Name
Graphene oxide inhibits malaria parasite invasion and delays parasitic growth in vitro
Size
2.52 MB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
488984b49daa27fd484a07e2e1cc772a
Author(s)
Kenry, Kenry
Lim, Ying Bena
Nai, Mui Hoon
Cao, Jianshu
Loh, Kian Ping
Lim, Chwee Teck
Date Issued
August 2017
Journal
Nanoscale
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Citation
Kenry, Kenry et al. “Graphene Oxide Inhibits Malaria Parasite Invasion and Delays Parasitic Growth in Vitro.” Nanoscale 9, 37 (2017): 14065–14073 © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The interactions between graphene oxide (GO) and various biological entities have been actively investigated in recent years, resulting in numerous potential bioapplications of these nanomaterials. Despite this, the biological interactions between GO and disease-causing protozoan parasites have not been well elucidated and remain relatively unexplored. Here, we investigate the in vitro interactions between GO nanosheets and a particular species of malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). We hypothesize that GO nanosheets may exhibit antimalarial characteristic via action mechanisms of physical obstruction of P. falciparum parasites as well as nutrient depletion. To ascertain this, we characterize the physical interactions between GO nanosheets, red blood cells (RBCs), and malarial parasites as well as the adsorption of several biomolecules necessary for parasitic survival and growth on GO nanosheets. Subsequent to establishing the origin of this antimalarial behavior of GO nanosheets, their efficiency in inhibiting parasite invasion is evaluated. We observe that GO nanosheets at various tested concentrations significantly inhibit the invasion of malaria parasites into RBCs. Furthermore, GO nanosheets delay parasite progression from the ring to the trophozoite stage. Overall, this study may further shed light on the graphene-parasite interactions and potentially facilitate the development of nanomaterial-based strategies for combating malaria.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1039/c7nr06007f
