Fig. 2

Plasmodium falciparum life cycle and vaccines at different stages. The numbers of annotations of vaccines / antigens in VIOLIN relabeled beside corresponding life stages. P. falciparum parasites (blue cells with red nuclei) enter the human body when a parasite-carrying mosquito takes a blood meal. The sporozoites infect human liver cells (yellow), in which the parasite replicates and eventually releases merozoites. The merozoites infect human red blood cells (red), and the ring-stage parasites either enter the erythrocytic cycle for asexual reproduction or develop into gametocytes. The gametocytes are taken by mosquitos during another blood meal and sexually reproduce [21]. The red arrows represent the mosquito stage, whereas the blue arrows represent the human stage. Figure and life cycle adapted from NIH.gov