Red cell membrane and malaria

Malaria is the most serious and widespread parasitic disease of humans, with up to 500 million people being Infected each year with malaria parasites and a million individuals. predominantly infants and young children. dying as a consequence of the in During intra-erythrocytic life cycle of 48 h. over 400 proteins produced by parasites are exported into the led cell cytoplasm and a number of these proteins interact with membrane skeleton Significant progress is being made in identifying the binding domains in both parasite proteins and red cell proteins that mediate protein-protein interactions These various parasite-red cell protein interactions are responsible for striking structural and morphological changes in the infected red cell including loss of normal discoid shape, perturbations in the theological and adhesive properties of the cell that are responsible for the clinical manifestation of malaria infection. malarial anemia and cerebral malaria It is anticipated these ongoing advances will offer opportunities for the discovery of new and tu gently needed therapeutic targets for the treatment of malaria (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved