Rebecca Gilson with Brian Grimberg and Robert Brown

Plasmoidium Falciparum Response to Oscillating Magenetic Fields and the Influence of Disruptive Measures

Malaria causes over one million deaths per year and Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly of the five types of human malaria. To prevent the build up of toxic heme, as a result of hemoglobin digestion, the parasite sequesters the heme into a lipid body where it forms the inert paramagnetic crystal hemozoin. We sought to determine if applying a strong rotating magnetic field to P. falciparum would affect the growth of the parasite. We applied a 1 Hz. 5Hz and 10 Hz oscillating magnetic field to cultures of parasites for  48 hours, taking initial data by microscopy and final data by flow cytometry. The result showed a decrease in parasitemia over the 48 hours but was inconsistent between experiments. We applied a 0.46T rotating and static magnetic field to cultures of rings, trophozoites, schizonts and mixed stages at frequencies of 1Hz, 5Hz, 10Hz for 48 hours and counted the number of parasites every 24 hours via flow cytometry. Results reveal that at 5Hz and 10Hz the schizont life stage is most effected by the magnetic field. In addition a static field aids the growth of schizonts.