Malaria is one of the most devastating human diseases, with almost a third of the world’s population at risk of infection. The most severe form of the disease is caused by Plasmodium falciparum and while there have been considerable efforts to control this parasite, there is still relatively little known about exactly how the parasite causes disease. What is known is that parasite is the ultimate home renovator, and once it has infected human red blood cells it can drastically alter their structure and function, making them rigid and sticky, and in turn cause the more severe malaria symptoms. While the association between these modifications and disease is well described, it has only recently come to light that the parasites capacity to renovate its home may also be important for allowing the parasite to transmit to mosquitoes. The possibility that this ability is vital for both the severity and spread of the disease is incredibly exciting and this is what this project set out to uncover. To begin this task the focus was on one unique family of parasite proteins that we believe could be the Rosetta Stone that finally decodes the mechanisms underlying the parasites ability to renovate the human red blood cells that leads to both severe disease and transmission, with the hope that this information could be used in future vaccine or drug development. The overall conclusion from this project was that the results point to the fact that parasites ability to renovate its home is not only important for disease but also for it spread in the mosquito vector, and as such represent good targets for malaria intervention strategies.
