OBJECTIVES To detect malarial parasites using the peripheral blood smear (PBS) and to compare the PBS with the immunochromatographic antigen test (i.e. OptiMAL and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)). METHODS Six ml of blood was collected from each of 170 patients clinically suspected of having malaria. These samples were used to perform PBS examination, the OptiMAL test and PCR by standard prot...

Antigens, circulating in the blood during malarial infections, have been implicated in immune protection, immunosuppression, and immune-complex formation. We used a monoclonal antibody (MAb 7H8) to identify an antigen (Ag-7H8) in the sera of mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii. The major form of the antigen has a molecular weight of approximately 120,000 in P. yoelii, with minor components of ...

BACKGROUND Recent findings of Plasmodium in African apes have changed our perspectives on the evolution of malarial parasites in hominids. However, phylogenetic analyses of primate malarias are still missing information from Southeast Asian apes. In this study, we report molecular data for a malaria parasite lineage found in orangutans. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We screened twenty-four b...

The malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is an intracellular pathogen and partially dependent on nutrient uptake for survival. In this issue of Chemistry & Biology, Marvin et al. demonstrate that zinc is essential for parasite growth and that the parasite maintains substantial labile cytosolic and mitochondrial zinc pools.

Understanding the molecular defense mechanism of macrophages and identifying their effector molecules against malarial parasites may provide important clues for the discovery of new therapies. To analyze the immunological responses of malarial parasite-induced macrophages, we used DNA microarray technology to examine the gene profile of differentiated macrophages phagocytizing Plasmodium falcip...

Immunity to malarial infections in human populations is known to affect the development of the asexual blood stages of the parasites in the human host and to be capable of conferring significant protection against morbidity and mortality due to the disease. In this study we show that during acute infection with Plasmodium vivax malaria, one of the two main malarial pathogens of humans, most ind...

parasitaemia to 0-5%. Forty eight hours after admission her temperature was normal and no parasites were detectable in further films. The quinine was then continued orally for 10 days at a dose of 600 mg every 12 hours. Her subsequent antenatal course was uncomplicated. Films remained negative for malarial parasites. Four weeks after her admission she was readmitted in spontaneous labour that r...

Mixed Plasmodium malariae and P. vivax infections in humans are reported very infrequently. The case of a 27-year-old male who sustained malaria quartana/tertiana caused by an unbalanced mixed P. malariae-P. vivax infection is reported here. Conventional tests and serology for malarial parasites were uniformly negative. Identification and quantification of the parasites were accomplished by exa...

were sleeping; in these mosquitos were observed various stages of the development of the parasite. From such a study, considering the quantity of material used, we might expect, as indeed turned out to be the case, noteworthy results. Contemporaneously, mosquitos were studied, which were caught in stables and poultry yards, which, deriving their nourishment from the blood of birds and domestic ...

1. Multiple infection of red corpuscles with young parasites is seen in all malarial infections, but it is found most frequently in the aestivo-autumnal infections. The occurrence is accidental and has no significance other than that if the instances are numerous it suggests a heavy infection. 2. In instances of multiple infection the young parasites may be seen to be attached: (a) each encircl...