Virulence is associated with daily rhythms in the within-host replication of the malaria parasite .

Most malaria ( spp.) parasite species undergo asexual replication synchronously within the red blood cells of their vertebrate host. Rhythmicity in this intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) enables parasites to maximise exploitation of the host and align transmission activities with the time of day that mosquito vectors blood feed.

Synchrony between daily rhythms of malaria parasites and hosts is driven by an essential amino acid.

Rapid asexual replication of blood stage malaria parasites is responsible for the severity of disease symptoms and fuels the production of transmission forms. Here, we demonstrate that a  schedule for asexual replication can be orchestrated by isoleucine, a metabolite provided to the parasite in a periodic manner due to the host's rhythmic intake of food. We infect female C57BL/6 and Per1/2-null mice which have a disrupted canonical (transcription translation feedback loop, TTFL) clock with 1×10 red blood cells containing (DK genotype).

Daily rhythms of both host and parasite affect antimalarial drug efficacy.

Background And Objectives: Circadian rhythms contribute to treatment efficacy in several non-communicable diseases. However, chronotherapy (administering drugs at a particular time-of-day) against infectious diseases has been overlooked. Yet, the daily rhythms of both hosts and disease-causing agents can impact the efficacy of drug treatment.