Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite that causes the most virulent o f human malarias. The asexual blood-stage organism invades and multiplies in a vacuole in the mature erythrocyte. During intravacuolar growth, it induces the formation of a novel network o f tubovesicular membranes, the TVM, that is not present in uninfected red blood cells. Recent data suggest that sphingomyelin biosynthesis by the parasite is an essential requirement for the assembly o f the TVM. Furthermore, sphingolipid synthesis as well as the formation and function o f the TVM may provide new targets for chemotherapy against malaria parasites.

中文翻译：

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鞘脂合成和鞘脂形成膜。

恶性疟原虫是一种原生动物寄生虫，可引起人类疟疾最具毒性。无性血液阶段生物侵入并在成熟红细胞的液泡中繁殖。在真空内生长期间，它诱导了新的肾小管膜网络TVM的形成，这种网络在未感染的红细胞中不存在。最近的数据表明，寄生虫的鞘磷脂生物合成是TVM组装的基本要求。此外，鞘脂的合成以及TVM的形成和功能可能为抗疟原虫的化学疗法提供新的靶点。