title: The Rheopathobiology of Plasmodium vivax and Other Important Primate Malaria Parasites.
abstract: Our current understanding of how malaria parasites remodel their host red blood cells (RBCs) and ultimately cause disease is largely based on studies of Plasmodium falciparum. In this review, we expand our knowledge to include what is currently known about pathophysiological changes to RBCs that are infected by non-falciparum malaria parasites. We highlight the potential folly of making generalizations about the rheology of malaria infection, and emphasize the need for more systematic studies into the erythrocytic biology of non-falciparum malaria parasites. We propose that a better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the changes to RBCs induced by malaria parasites other than P. falciparum may be highly informative for the development of therapeutics that specifically disrupt the altered rheological profile of RBCs infected with either sexual- or asexual-stage parasites, resulting in drugs that block transmission, reduce disease severity, and help delay the onset of resistance to current and future anti-malaria drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Singapore; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Bruce M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: brian.cooke@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Cooke
mesh_terms: D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000469:parasitology; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000502:physiology*; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000502:physiology*; D012212:Rheology