An establishment of exo-erythrocytic stage of malaria parasite for ex-vivo study of sporozoiticidals

Despite, since 1880s plasmodium blood stages have been recognized, our knowledge of liver stage parasite is still six decade old. Even after a long time of its discovery, the exo-erythrocytic forms of the parasite have remained adamant to reveal their biological secrets. Till date, our understanding of liver stage of parasite is in vague. Infection in human is initiated when plasmodium sporozoite enter through the bite of female Anopheles mosquito during their obligatory blood meal (1). Under the skin of host an average of 15-123 sporozoites have been reported to be deposited where they infect hepatocytes and begin to develop into merozoites (2). Depending on the species of plasmodium, thousands of merozoites per invading sporozoite between 2 and 16 days are released in blood stream for erythrocytic infection. Although the obligatory step of sporozoite establishment and full development inside is symptomatically silent, it gives rise to thousand of merozoites in the hepatocyte.