Abstract
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•Malaria diagnosis and species classification relies primarily on bright field microscopy, which is often impacted by technical limitations.•Novel techniques such as Optical Diffraction Tomography (ODT) provide alternative applications in biomedical sciences including hematopathology.•The advantage of this approach in the context of Malaria is its ability to capture and accurately distinguish three-dimensional morphology and biochemical properties of live parasites.•Herein, we explored ODT and image reconstruction to analyse host re-modeling events in divergent parasites- such as P. vivax and P. falciparum.•These results demonstrate how different Plasmodium species influence host RBC morphology and biochemical properties, as a way to advance our knowledge of Malaria pathogenesis and host-dependent modifications.
Malaria is a life-threatening infectious disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Understanding the biological features of various parasite forms is important for the optical diagnosis and defining pathological states, which are often constrained by the lack of ambient visualization approaches. Here, we employ a label-free tomographic technique to visualize the host red blood cell (RBC) remodeling process and quantify changes in biochemical properties arising from parasitization. Through this, we provide a quantitative body of information pertaining to the influence of host cell environment on growth, survival, and replication of P. falciparum and P. vivax in their respective host cells: mature erythrocytes and young reticulocytes. These exquisite three-dimensional measurements of infected red cells demonstrats the potential of evolving 3D imaging to advance our understanding of Plasmodium biology and host-parasite interactions.