Damages at the nanoscale on red blood cells promoted by fire corals.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Díaz-Marrero, Ana R. Rodríguez González, Miriam C. Hernández Creus, Alberto Rodríguez Hernández, Adriana Fernández, José J.
Abstract	The hydrocoral Millepora alcicornis, known as fire coral, biosynthesize protein toxins with phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity as a main defense mechanism; proteins that rapidly catalyse the hydrolysis at the sn-2 position of phosphatidylcholine-type phospholipids of cellular membranes. This hydrolysis mechanism triggers a structural damage in the outer leaflet of the red blood cells (RBC) membrane, by generating pores in the lipid bilayer that leads to a depletion of the cellular content of the damaged cell. A secondary mechanism, tentatively caused by pore-forming proteins toxins (PFTs), has been observed. The use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) has allowed to visualize the evolution of damages produced on the surface of the cells at the nanoscale level along the time.
Journal	Scientific Reports [Sci Rep]
Volume Number	9
DOI	10.1038/s41598-019-50744-6
PubMed Central reference number	PMC6778144
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	31586105
e-ISSN	20452322
Language	English
Publisher	Nature Publishing Group
Publisher Date	2019-10-04
Publisher Place	London
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Imaging Atomic force microscopy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Multidisciplinary