Surface Morphological Changes as Biomarkers for Detecting Malaria Infected Avian Erythrocytes

This paper reports the preliminary finding that the unique surface morphologies of avian red blood cells (aRBCs) infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum enables the cells to interact with the roughened surface and become immobilized inside the microfluidic channels. It is also found that a roughened glass substrate with ten-pointheight larger than the depth of surface lesions and furrow-like structures of malaria infected aRBCs (miaRBCs) shows a substantial enhancement of immobilizing infected aRBCs. These findings indicate that surface morphologies, including surface lesions and furrow-like structures, can serve as alternative biomarkers for malaria diagnosis in addition to the elevated stiffness and cyto-adhesion characteristics.