The Malarial Secretome.

The article reports on the malarial secretome. Malaria, caused by the Plasmodium protozoan parasite, kills more than 1 million children in Africa alone each year. New interventions are needed to relieve the burden that malaria places on public health and economic development, particularly in Africa, which bears the brunt of the disease. Malarial parasites not only have a complex life cycle alternating between a vertebrate and invertebrate host, but also are capable of developing within highly specialized red blood cells — a challenge met by only a few intracellular pathogens.