Analysis of Plasmodium sporozoites collected from mosquito saliva

Plasmodium sporozoites are injected, in addition to saliva, into animal hosts when a female Anopheles mosquito takes a blood meal. The molecular components of saliva that interact with Plasmodium during this process are poorly characterized. Here we collected Plasmodium sporozoites directly from salivating Anopheles mosquitoes and looked for the presence of vector proteins that could be interacting with the parasites during transmission for further characterization.

当雌性按蚊（Anopheles）吸食血液时，疟原虫（Plasmodium）子孢子（sporozoites）会与唾液一同被注入动物宿主体内。目前，对于该传播过程中与疟原虫相互作用的唾液分子组分，其特征尚未得到充分表征。本研究直接从正在分泌唾液的按蚊体内采集疟原虫子孢子，并筛选出可能在传播阶段与寄生虫相互作用的媒介蛋白（vector proteins），以开展后续的表征研究。