, Vanessa Zuzarte-Luis b

Infection of liver cells by Plasmodium, the malaria parasite, is a clinically silent, obligatory step of the parasite’s life cycle. We have studied the progression of Plasmodium infection in hepatic cells by atomic force microscopy, measuring both topographical and nanomechanical changes upon infection. In recent years, a number of studies have suggested that cellular nanomechanical properties can be correlated with disease progression. Our results show that infected cells exhibit 2 considerable topographical changes which can be correlated to the presence of the parasite, leading to a significant roughening of the cell membrane. The nanomechanical measurements showed that infected cells were significantly stiffer than noninfected cells. Furthermore, the stiffening of the cells appeared to be a cellular reaction to the Plasmodium infection, rather than a result of the stiffness of the invading parasites themselves. This report provides the first evidence of mechanical changes occurring in hepatic cells in response to Plasmodium infection. 3 Malaria is the most important vector-borne disease in the world, threatening ~40 % of the huma