Commonly recognised Plasmodium falciparum parasites cause cerebral malaria.

Cerebral malaria (CM) is a devastating form of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, in which adherence and sequestration of infected red blood cells in cerebral blood vessels play a major role. In order to determine whether a distinct parasite phenotype favours the development of this severe complication, P. falciparum isolates from Gabonese children suffering from CM or uncomplicated malaria (UM) were analysed for their binding phenotypes and their recognition in flow cytometry.

Recognition of variant Rifin antigens by human antibodies induced during natural Plasmodium falciparum infections.

Antibodies from individuals living in areas where malaria is endemic are known to react with parasite-derived erythrocyte surface proteins. The major immunogenic and clonally variant surface antigen described to date is Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP-1), which is encoded by members of the multicopy var gene family. We report here that rifin proteins (RIF proteins), belonging to the largest known family of variable infected erythrocyte surface-expressed proteins, are also naturally immunogenic.

Identification and biochemical characterisation of a protein phosphatase 5 homologue from Plasmodium falciparum.

We report the identification of a new serine/threonine phosphatase from Plasmodium falciparum at the DNA and protein levels. A 1.8 kb cDNA fragment encoding the protein phosphatase was identified via PCR amplification.