Word: plasmodium
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...Plasmodium, a protozoan responsible for malaria, flourishes in the human body, growing inside red blood cells until the cells burst. And without enough red cells to carry oxygen through the body, humans become anemic and can die from renal failure or convulsions. Bacteria, which are considerably smaller than protozoans, generally do their damage indirectly, producing toxins that stimulate the body to mount an immune response. Ideally the immune cells kill the bacteria. But if the bacteria get out of control, their poisons can either kill cells or generate a huge immune reaction that is itself toxic...
Using a genetic technique known as transfection, a group of researchers at the School of Public Health were able to induce Plasmodium, the malaria parasite, to produce luciferase, the enzyme used by fireflies to emit light...
...essence, the team had created a luminous Plasmodium, one which should shed some light on the genetic processes which eventually lead to human infection by malaria and disease...
...nature fought back, however. War in Southeast Asia and political instability in countries like Idi Amin's Uganda interfered with eradication efforts. Premature reports of success against malaria led some health authorities to relax their vigilance. Then came the worst blows of all: in the mid-1960s, Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of the four species of parasite that cause human malaria, showed signs of becoming resistant to chloroquine. Soon there were resistant strains on three continents. About the same time, health officials around the Mediterranean began to find mosquitoes that were immune to DDT. It was a classic...
...largely come to a halt during the years that chloroquine and DDT seemed all conquering. But Dr. Ruth Nussenzweig of N.Y.U. continued to pursue a malaria vaccine, a goal many viewed as impossible. The malaria bug presented unique obstacles. The first was the complex life cycle of the Plasmodium parasite, which is in a sense three bugs in one (see diagram): the sporozoite, which enters the human bloodstream when an infected mosquito bites; the merozoite, which invades the red blood cells and causes the disease's chills and fever; and the gametocyte, which, when ingested by a biting mosquito...