Malaria Research

In 2016, there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria. Most cases of malaria remain clinically silent. However, some infected people develop severe symptoms, leading to the death of over 500’000 people a year. Why some patients die from malaria, while some are only mildly sick?
To gain insights into the pathogenesis of malaria, the Mantel lab investigates the regulation of host-parasite interactions. In particular, we are studying factors secreted by infected red blood cells and how those factors regulate the immune response.
Recently, our work has focused on extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are small vesicles secreted by Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells. Our lab has developed new tools to isolate EVs and we have described several cargoes including the RNA and protein contents. We have shown that EVs carry functional miRNAs that can regulate transcription in the recipient cells. Interestingly, we have demonstrated that miR451 transferred to endothelial cells via EVs can modulate the endothelial barrier permeability by directly regulation of gene expression.
The lab seeks to identify fundamental principles that explain the outcome of host-parasite interactions, with the goal of understanding how the parasite infections affects the immune response and pathogenesis. To achieve these goals, we use cell and molecular biology, immunology and the rodent malaria model.

Members

Publications

Validation of Effective Extracellular Vesicles Isolation Methods Adapted to Field Studies in Malaria Endemic Regions.
Zoia M, Yesodha Subramanian B, Eriksson KK, Ravi MS, Yaghmaei S, Fellay I, Scolari B, Michael Walch, Mantel PY, Frontiers in cell and developmental biology (2022) | Journal article

Epstein-Barr virus and malaria upregulate AID and APOBEC3 enzymes, but only AID seems to play a major mutagenic role in Burkitt lymphoma.
Summerauer AM, Jäggi V, Ogwang R, Traxel S, Colombo L, Amundsen E, Eyer T, Subramanian B, Jan Fehr, Mantel PY, Idro R, simone bürgler, European journal of immunology (2022) | Journal article

Oxidative and Non-Oxidative Antimicrobial Activities of the Granzymes.
Marilyne LAVERGNE, Hernández-Castañeda MA, Mantel PY, Martinvalet D, Michael Walch, Frontiers in immunology (2021) | Journal article

A Profound Membrane Reorganization Defines Susceptibility of Plasmodium falciparum Infected Red Blood Cells to Lysis by Granulysin and Perforin.
Hernández-Castañeda MA, Marilyne LAVERGNE, Casanova P, Nydegger B, Merten C, Subramanian BY, Matthey P, Nils Lannes, Mantel PY, Michael Walch, Frontiers in immunology (2021) | Journal article

Chemotaxis and swarming in differentiated HL-60 neutrophil-like cells.
Babatunde KA, Wang X, Hopke A, Nils Lannes, Mantel PY, Irimia D, Scientific reports (2021) | Journal article

Killing Bacteria with Cytotoxic Effector Proteins of Human Killer Immune Cells: Granzymes, Granulysin, and Perforin.
Leon, Diego Lopez and Fellay, Isabelle and Mantel, Pierre-Yves and Walch, Michael, Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) (2017) | Journal article