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Ookluc: A Plasmodium berghei Line for Identifying Transmission-blocking Compounds
Published on: July 11, 2025
Plasmodium berghei bio-burden correlates with parasite lactate dehydrogenase: application to murine Plasmodium
Sai Lata De1, Danielle I Stanisic2, Fabian Rivera3
1Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. s.de@griffith.edu.au.
Background:
The spectrum of techniques to detect malaria parasites in whole blood is limited to measuring parasites in circulation. One approach that is currently used to enumerate total parasite bio-burden involves the use of bio-luminescent parasites. As an alternative approach, this study describes the use of a commercial ELISA human parasite lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) detection kit to estimate total parasite bio-burden in murine malaria models.
Methods:
The cross reactivity of pLDH in a commercial human malaria pLDH diagnostic kit was established in different components of blood for different murine malaria models. The use of pLDH as a measure of parasite bio-burden was evaluated by examining pLDH in relation to peripheral blood parasitaemia as determined by microscopy and calculating total parasite bio-burden using a bio-luminescent Plasmodium berghei ANKA luciferase parasite.
Results:
The pLDH antigen was detected in all four murine Plasmodium species and in all components of Plasmodium-infected blood. A significant correlation (r = 0.6922, P value <0.0001) was observed between total parasite bio-burden, measured as log average radiance, and concentration of pLDH units.
Conclusions:
This high throughput assay is a suitable measure of total parasite bio-burden in murine malaria infections. Unlike existing methods, it permits the estimation of both circulating and sequestered parasites, allowing a more accurate assessment of parasite bio-burden.
