Unambiguous determination of Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte invasion by flow cytometry

The invasion of CD71+ reticulocytes by Plasmodium vivax is a crucial yet poorly characterised event. The application of flow cytometry to ex vivo invasion assays promises to facilitate the quantitative analysis of P. vivax reticulocyte invasion. However, current protocols suffer from a low level of sensitivity due to the absence of a particular design for P. vivax cell tropism. Importantly, merozoite invasion into contaminating red blood cells...