preview

Taking a Look at Plasmodium Falciparium

Decent Essays

Plasmodium falciparium belongs to the family Plasmodidae and is one of four different Plasmodium species that infect humans (7). Plasmodium species are obligate intracellular parasitic protozoa that are unicellular, eukaryotic and chemoheterotrophic and as a result, need a host for nutrition and reproduction (5). Plasmodium falciparium along with Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium vivax are usually seen as human parasites (10). P. falciparium is one of the two protozoan parasites that is responsible for most cases of malaria, the other being Plasmodium vivax (6). P. falciparium is usually found in the tropics and subtropics but has also spread to temperate zones (11). Blood smears are usually used to differentiate between the four species because at the blood stage, they tend to modify the host erythrocyte differently and exhibit differences in their morphology (6, 7). P. falciparium is usually characterized with young rings in the absence of mature rings and schizonts (9). These ring stages tend to be slightly smaller and more numerous than those of the other species. Other distinguishable characteristics of P. falciparum are its high level of parasitemia and its banana shaped gametocytes (7). The genome size of P. falciparum ranges between 1x107 and 4x108 base pairs and its cell cycle takes place in two stages: asexual and sexual (10). Two types of hosts are required to complete the cell cycle: an invertebrate and a vertebrate. The sexual maturity of

Get Access