Covalent binding of polyethylene glycol to the surface of red blood cells as detected and followed up by cell electrophoresis and rheological methods.

Cyanuric chloride activated polyethylene glycol (PEG)-5000 was covalently coupled to murine and human red blood cells (pegylated RBC). Our purpose was to camouflage RBC receptors, which is necessary for parasite invasion, a process essential to sustain parasitemia. Cell electrophoretic mobility analysis (CEM) of pegylated RBC distinguished a new population of cells bearing characteristic CEM. Pegylation of RBC also modified their rheological properties, which were documented by evaluation of cell deformability (based on cell transit time through calibrated micropores) and cell aggregation (as measured by ultrasonic interferometry). Homologous transfusion of pegylated RBC into murine malaria-infected mice had no significant effect on the cerebral malaria death rate in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice, but it reduced the peripheral blood parasitemia by a factor 2 while in Plasmodium yoelii infected mice, the parasitemia was dramatically reduced by a factor of 4. These experiments demonstrate that transfusion of pegylated RBC may inhibit peripheral parasitemia. Cell electrophoresis appears to be a useful tool to allow in vivo detection and to investigate the fate of transfused pegylated RBC.