ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the experimental evidence concerning the antimalarial activity of interferon gamma. It focuses on the earlier stages of infection, in particular the sporozoite and exoerythrocytic stages. The life cycle of malaria parasites within their mammalian hosts is characterized by a high degree of developmental differentiation. An uninterrupted natural infection proceeds through three morphologically distinct stages: the sporozoite, the exoerythrocytic forms, and the blood stages. The precise details concerning the transition from sporozoite to intrahepatocytic EEF are not well understood. It is clear, however, that the process is quite rapid and that, correspondingly, the circulating sporozoite stage is shortlived. The demonstration that inoculation of experimental hosts with attenuated, X-irradiated sporozoites of a variety of malarial species confers a fully protective immunity to subsequent viable sporozoite challenge has resulted in further research aimed at understanding this phenomenon and exploiting it for the purposes of vaccination.
