Immune evasion is a strategy used by pathogenic microbes to evade the host immune system in order to
ensure successful propagation. Immune evasion is particularly important for the blood stages of
Plasmodium
falciparum, the causative agent of the deadly disease malaria tropica. Because
Plasmodium blood stage
parasites require human erythrocytes for replication, their ability to evade attack by the human immune
system is essential for parasite survival. In order to escape immunity-induced killing, the intraerythrocytic
parasites have evolved a variety of evasion mechanisms, including expansion of plasmodial surface proteins,
organ-specific sequestration of the infected red blood cells and acquisition of immune-regulatory proteins by
the parasite. This review aims to highlight recent advances in the molecular understanding of the immune
evasion strategies by P. falciparum, including antigenic variation, surface protein polymorphisms and
invasion ligand diversification. The review will further discuss new findings on the regulatory mechanisms
applied by P.
falciparum to avoid lysis by the human complement as well as killing by immune factors of the
mosquito vector.