Laser tweezers as a biophotonic tool to investigate the efficacy of living sickle red blood cells in response to optical deformation

Biophysical Reviews— 2021, the year that was

“…The "Meet the Editors" piece was contributed by Prof. Addmore Shohnai, a Zimbabwean scientist now working in South Africa as a professor (and head) of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Venda (Shonhai 2021). Of the scientific content articles appearing in this Issue, I would like highlight the following four which involved a scientific letter concerning the use of optical tweezers in a diagnostic assay of sickle cell anemia based on red blood cell plasticity, contributed by a collaborative team of laser physicists and clinicians based in Iran (Mohi et al 2021); a review article submitted by a team from Germany that explored biophysical methods for characterizing the directed movement of immune cells essential to carrying out their role in "immune surveillance" (Vesperini et al 2021); a review article by a group from the UK exploring the biophysical and analytical procedures for characterizing the eliciting glycoconjugate antigens used in the development of novel classes of vaccines for enteric bacteria (such as salmonella) (Bazhenova et al 2021); and finally, a review article by a New Zealand government scientist who discussed molecular biology procedures for engineering protein ligation relays -biochemical pathways in which one protein is attached with extreme specificity to another through a cascade of intermediate shuttle protein reactions (Mabbitt 2021).…”

In vitro investigation of the mechanics of fixed red blood cells based on optical trap micromanipulation and image analysis

“…Due to its non-contact nature, high precision, and mechanical controllability, optical tweezers have found extensive applications in erythrocyte studies [ 15 ]. Recent major studies in this domain include: (1) Investigation of erythrocyte deformation properties in thalassemia, diabetes mellitus, and sickle cell disease [ 16 – 18 ]; (2) Examination of interactions between erythrocytes [ 19 , 20 ]; (3) Assessment of the effects of medical nanomaterials on erythrocytes [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Biophysical Reviews: slowly getting back to ‘normal’?

“…The final article of the front section is a Letter from Iraq arising from a collaboration between the Department of Physics (University of Basrah) and the Basrah City Public Health Offices (Mohi et al 2021). This Letter describes the application of multiple laser optical traps to characterize the difference in cellular elasticity of red blood cells isolated from either healthy patients or patients suffering from sickle cell anemia.…”

“…This Letter describes the application of multiple laser optical traps to characterize the difference in cellular elasticity of red blood cells isolated from either healthy patients or patients suffering from sickle cell anemia. As an interesting demonstration of physics applied to medicine, this article deserves to be widely read (Mohi et al 2021).…”