Enrichment of malaria parasites by antibody immobilized magnetic nanoparticles

The simple and less expensive technique based on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) was developed for separation of malaria parasites containing specific antigens. The carboxylated MNPs were chemically bound with anti-P. falciparum IgG antibodies (Ab-MNPs) purified from the plasma of malaria patients and then used for removal of P. falciparum malaria-infected erythrocytes from other non-infected blood cells in malaria culture at a given percent parasitemia. The results from optical microscope showed that all blood stages parasites, i.e., ring, trophozoite and schizont, could be separated from other blood components with high purity (> or = 95%) and yield of 33.5% (the early stages of ring and trophozoite:the schizont stage were 1:1.34). Highly specific interaction between Ab-MNPs and the P. falciparum malaria infected erythrocytes was confirmed by scanning electron microscope. When compared to the centrifugation with Percoll gradient and depletion by sorbitol lysis which are specific to the mature and the ring stages, respectively, our technique would be more useful for production of high quality of parasites to use in malaria pathogenesis or immunological studies, and in detection techniques.