Pathogenicity and virulence of malaria: Sticky problems and tricky solutions

IS Walker, SJ Rogerson - Virulence, 2023 - Taylor & Francis
Infections with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax cause over 600,000 deaths
each year, concentrated in Africa and in young children, but much of the world's population …

The riveting cellular structures of apicomplexan parasites

CR Harding, F Frischknecht - Trends in Parasitology, 2020 - cell.com
Parasitic protozoa of the phylum Apicomplexa cause a range of human and animal
diseases. Their complex life cycles–often heteroxenous with sexual and asexual phases in …

PCRCR complex is essential for invasion of human erythrocytes by Plasmodium falciparum

SW Scally, T Triglia, C Evelyn, BA Seager… - Nature …, 2022 - nature.com
The most severe form of malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. These parasites
invade human erythrocytes, and an essential step in this process involves the ligand PfRh5 …

Origin and arrangement of actin filaments for gliding motility in apicomplexan parasites revealed by cryo-electron tomography

M Martinez, SK Mageswaran, A Guérin… - Nature …, 2023 - nature.com
The phylum Apicomplexa comprises important eukaryotic parasites that invade host tissues
and cells using a unique mechanism of gliding motility. Gliding is powered by actomyosin …

Emergent actin flows explain distinct modes of gliding motility

CL Hueschen, L Segev-Zarko, JH Chen, MA LeGros… - Nature Physics, 2024 - nature.com
During host infection, Toxoplasma gondii and related unicellular parasites move using
gliding, which differs fundamentally from other known mechanisms of eukaryotic cell motility …

The Need for Novel Asexual Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine Candidates for Plasmodium falciparum

E Takashima, H Otsuki, M Morita, D Ito, H Nagaoka… - Biomolecules, 2024 - mdpi.com
Extensive control efforts have significantly reduced malaria cases and deaths over the past
two decades, but in recent years, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, success has …

Apicomplexan phosphodiesterases in cyclic nucleotide turnover: conservation, function, and therapeutic potential

WJ Moss, L Brusini, R Kuehnel, M Brochet, KM Brown - Mbio, 2024 - Am Soc Microbiol
Apicomplexa encompasses a large number of intracellular parasites infecting a wide range
of animals. Cyclic nucleotide signaling is crucial for a variety of apicomplexan life stages and …

Active oscillations in microscale navigation

KY Wan - Animal Cognition, 2023 - Springer
Living organisms routinely navigate their surroundings in search of better conditions, more
food, or to avoid predators. Typically, animals do so by integrating sensory cues from the …

Sulfonylpiperazine compounds prevent Plasmodium falciparum invasion of red blood cells through interference with actin-1/profilin dynamics

MG Dans, H Piirainen, W Nguyen, S Khurana… - PLoS …, 2023 - journals.plos.org
With emerging resistance to frontline treatments, it is vital that new antimalarial drugs are
identified to target Plasmodium falciparum. We have recently described a compound …

Submicrometre spatiotemporal characterization of the Toxoplasma adhesion strategy for gliding motility

L Vigetti, B Touquet, D Debarre, T Rose, L Bureau… - Nature …, 2024 - nature.com
Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan apicomplexan parasite that uses an adhesion-dependent
mode of motility termed gliding to access host cells and disseminate into tissues. Previous …