Functional analysis of proteins involved in Plasmodium falciparum merozoite invasion of red blood cells

Plasmodium falciparum causes the most lethal form of malaria in humans and is responsible for over two million deaths per year, The development of a v accine against this parasite is an urgent priority and potential protein ta rgets include those on the surface of the asexual merozoite stage, the form that invades the host erythrocyte, The development of methods to transfect P, falciparum has enabled the construction of gain-of-function and loss-of -function mutants and provided new strategies to analyse the role of parasi te proteins, In this review, we describe the use of this technology to exam ine the role of merozoite antigens in erythrocyte invasion and to address t heir potential as vaccine candidates. (C) 2000 Federation of European Bioch emical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.