Antimalarials

Malaria is an infection that can be caused by a few different types of plasmodium species, which are single- celled parasites that are spread by mosquitoes.

There are hundreds of types of Plasmodium species, but the five that cause malarial disease in humans are Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale, and Plasmodium knowlesi.

Once the plasmodium gets into the bloodstream, it infects liver cells and red blood cells, which causes a variety of symptoms and sometimes even leads to death. We rely on groups of medications commonly known as antimalarials, in order to prevent and treat malaria.

Now, malaria is transmitted when a plasmodium- infected female of the Aedes, Anopheles, or Culex mosquito hunts for a blood meal in the evening and throughout the night.

They’re kind of like tiny flying vampires, with the mosquito being drawn to carbon dioxide that get breathed out, as well as bodily smells, like foot odor.

At this point, the Plasmodium is in a stage of development called a sporozoite, waiting patiently in the mosquito’s salivary gland.

When the mosquito bites a person with its proboscis, the worm- like sporozoites spill out of the mosquito’s saliva and make it into the bloodstream.

The sporozoites then travel to the liver, where they invade hepatocytes.

There, they begin asexual reproduction, also known as schizogony.

Over the next 1-2 weeks, P. falciparum, P. malariae, and P. knowlesi sporozoites multiply asexually and mature into merozoites, while host hepatic parenchymal cells die.

In contrast, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale sporozoites enter into a dormant hepatic phase, where they are called hypnozoites.

They can remain in this dormant phase for months to years until they wake up and begin schizogony.

In both cases, when the merozoites are released into the blood, they enter the erythrocytic stage, where they invade red blood cells.

Once inside the red blood cell, Plasmodium feeds on hemoglobin via a process called endocytosis, where the parasite wraps its membrane around the hemoglobin, in order to bring the hemoglobin inside itself.