Frevert Ute, Nacer Adéla, Cabrera Mynthia, Movila Alexandru, Leberl Maike
Division of Medical Parasitology, Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 341 E 25 Street, New York, NY 10010, USA.
Parasitol Int. 2014 Feb;63(1):171-86. doi: 10.1016/j.parint.2013.09.013. Epub 2013 Sep 27.
Plasmodium falciparum malaria is responsible for the deaths of over half a million African children annually. Until a decade ago, dynamic analysis of the malaria parasite was limited to in vitro systems with the typical limitations associated with 2D monocultures or entirely artificial surfaces. Due to extremely low parasite densities, the liver was considered a black box in terms of Plasmodium sporozoite invasion, liver stage development, and merozoite release into the blood. Further, nothing was known about the behavior of blood stage parasites in organs such as the brain where clinical signs manifest and the ensuing immune response of the host that may ultimately result in a fatal outcome. The advent of fluorescent parasites, advances in imaging technology, and availability of an ever-increasing number of cellular and molecular probes have helped illuminate many steps along the pathogenetic cascade of this deadly tropical parasite.
恶性疟原虫每年导致超过50万非洲儿童死亡。直到十年前，对疟原虫的动态分析还局限于体外系统，存在与二维单一培养或完全人工表面相关的典型局限性。由于寄生虫密度极低，就疟原虫子孢子入侵、肝期发育以及裂殖子释放到血液中而言，肝脏被视为一个黑箱。此外，对于临床症状出现的器官（如大脑）中的血期寄生虫行为以及宿主随后可能最终导致致命结果的免疫反应，人们一无所知。荧光寄生虫的出现、成像技术的进步以及越来越多的细胞和分子探针的可用性，有助于阐明这种致命热带寄生虫致病级联反应中的许多步骤。
