During malaria blood-stage infections, <i>Plasmodium</i> parasites interact with the RBC surface to enable invasion followed by intracellular proliferation.
Pf113 is a P. falciparum putatively GPI-anchored protein that has been so far localized at the surface of merozoites, suggesting it could interact with RBC surface during merozoite invasion.
These findings suggest that HbAE erythrocytes have an unidentified membrane abnormality that renders the majority of the RBC population relatively resistant to invasion by P falciparum.
All conserved peptides were able to block merozoite invasion of new RBC and development, suggesting that these peptides are involved in P. falciparum invasion.