Multicolor Bioluminescence Boosts Malaria Research: Quantitative Dual-ColorAssay and Single-Cell Imaging in Plasmodium falciparum Parasites

摘要

New reliable and cost-effective antimalarial drug screening assays are urgently needed to identify drugs acting on different stages of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and particularly those responsible for human-to-mosquito transmission, that is, the P. falciparum gametocytes. Low Z′ factors, narrow dynamic ranges, and/or extended assay times are commonly reported in current gametocyte assays measuring gametocyte-expressed fluorescent or luciferase reporters, endogenous ATP levels, activity of gametocyte enzymes, or redox-dependent dye fluorescence. We hereby report on a dual-luciferase gametocyte assay with immature and mature P. falciparum gametocyte stages expressing red and green-emitting luciferases from Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus under the control of the parasite sexual stage-specific pfs16 gene promoter. The assay was validated with reference antimalarial drugs and allowed to quantitatively and simultaneously measure stage-specific drug effects on parasites at different developmental stages. The optimized assay, requiring only 48 h incubation with drugs and using a cost-effectiveluminogenic substrate, significantly reduces assay cost and time incomparison to state-of-the-art analogous assays. The assay had a Z′ factor of 0.71 ± 0.03, and it is suitablefor implementation in 96- and 384-well microplate formats. Moreover,the use of a nonlysing d-luciferin substrate significantlyimproved the reliability of the assay and allowed one to perform,for the first time, P. falciparum bioluminescenceimaging at single-cell level.