Plasmodium vivax is the second most prevalent cause of malaria yet remains challenging to study due to the lack of a continuous in vitro culture system, highlighting the need to establish a biobank of clinical isolates with multiple freezes per sample for use in functional assays.
Four different cryopreservation methods for P. vivax were compared, and one method provided improved parasite recovery and maturation in short-term in vitro cultures. Using this method, a biobank of clinical isolates was established with multiple freezes per isolate and validated by showing the ability to enrich parasites post-thaw with KCl-Percoll gradients, and for at least 60% of parasites to successfully mature in short-term in vitro cultures.
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