Malaria proteases and red blood cell invasion

Abstract

Studies of malaria proteases have focused on two general groups, corresponding to activities specific to malaria parasites: (1) proteases involved in hemoglobin degradation which are active in the food vacuole and which exhibit optimal activity at low pH; and (2) proteases specific to schizonts and/or merozoites which are involved in merozoite maturation and red blood cell invasion and which exhibit optimal activity at neutral pH. In this paper, Catherine Braun Breton and Luis H. Pereira da Silva will focus on those activities necessary for the release of infectious merozoites and the entry of the parasite into its host cell.