[Proteins involved in invasion of human red blood cells by malaria parasites].

Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of Plasmodium species. It is responsible for around 1-2 million deaths annually, mainly children under the age of 5. It occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical areas. Malaria is caused by five Plasmodium species: P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. vivax, P. knowlesi and P. ovale. Mosquitoes spread the disease by biting humans. The malaria parasite has two stages of development: the human stage and the mosquito stage. The first stage occurs in the human body and is divided into two phases: the liver phase and the blood phase. The invasion of erythrocytes by Plasmodium merozoites is a multistep process of specific protein interactions between the parasite and red blood cell. The first step is the reversible merozoite attachment to the erythrocyte followed by its apical reorientation, then formation of an irreversible "tight" junction and finally entry into the red cell in a parasitophorous vacuole. The blood phase is supported by a number of proteins produced by the parasite. The merozoite surface GPI-anchored proteins (MSP-1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 10) assist in the process of recognition of susceptible erythrocytes, apical membrane antigen (AMA-1) may be directly responsible for apical reorientation of the merozoite and apical proteins which function in tight junction formation. These ligands are members of two families: Duffy binding-like (DBL) and reticulocyte binding-like (RBL) proteins. In Plasmodium falciparum the DBL family includes: EBA-175, EBA-140 (BAEBL), EBA-181 (JESEBL), EBA-165 (PEBL) and EBL-1 ligands. To date, no effective antimalarial vaccine has been developed, but there are several studies for this purpose. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the molecular basis of host cells invasion by parasites. Major efforts are focused on developing a multiantigenic and multiepitope vaccine preventing all steps of Plasmodium invasion.