Inhibition of Sporozoite Invasion: The Double-Staining Assay

During the life cycle of the malaria parasites in mammals, sporozoites invade hepatocytes, and give rise to thousands of merozoites that are able to infect red blood cells. Invasion of the liver cells is thus a critical step by which infection becomes established in the host, and against which an antiparasite attack might be effective. The development of hepatic cell culture systems (1 -7 ) has made it possible to study several aspects of the liver stage infection, including penetration of the hepatocyte by the sporozoite (8 -13 ).