title: Hemozoin: malaria's "built-in" adjuvant and TLR9 agonist.
abstract: The "built-in" adjuvant in a whole-microbe vaccine potentially triggers protective immunity. Coban et al. now demonstrate that crude blood stage extract of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum drives parasite-specific immune responses via Hemozoin, a byproduct of heme detoxification, functioning as a TLR9 agonist and, therefore, as a "built-in" adjuvant.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Immunologie und Hygiene, Technische Universität München, Trogerstr. 30, 81675 München, Germany. hermann.wagner@mikrobio.med.tum.de
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wagner
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000818:Animals; D006420:Hemeproteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017780:Malaria Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000517:prevention & control*; D051379:Mice; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000276:immunology*; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9 / Q000819:agonists*
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D006420:Hemeproteins; D017780:Malaria Vaccines; C495370:Tlr9 protein, mouse; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9; C020753:hemozoin