BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Turning back the malarial hordes

December 1, 2011 8:00 AM UTC

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have identified a host receptor, basigin Ok blood group, that allows Plasmodium falciparum to invade erythrocytes and trigger a blood-stage malaria infection.1 The researchers are now developing a vaccine to neutralize the P. falciparum antigen that binds the receptor. A vaccine targeting blood-stage infection could be more effective at preventing clinical symptoms of malaria than vaccines that target the asymptomatic liver stage of the parasite.

The life cycle of P. falciparum has three distinct stages. The liver and blood stages occur in the host, whereas the sexual stage occurs in the gut of the mosquito. The actual illness only occurs during blood-stage infection, which is triggered when the parasite is released from the liver, enters systemic circulation and invades erythrocytes...