Plasmodium falciparum digestive vacuole and other parasite membranes (PfDV)

The Plasmodium falciparum digestive vacuole (DV) is a specialized, acidic lysosome-like organelle essential for the parasite's survival during its intraerythrocytic developmental stage. Its primary biological function is the degradation of host hemoglobin to provide essential amino acids for parasite protein synthesis (Wunderlich et al., 2012, PMID: 22230334). A critical byproduct of this degradation is toxic free heme (ferriprotoporphyrin IX), which the parasite must detoxify by sequestering it into insoluble crystals known as hemozoin (Egan, 2008, PMID: 18312013). This organelle and associated parasite membranes are the primary targets for many antimalarial drugs, particularly quinolines like chloroquine, which accumulate in the DV and inhibit heme crystallization, leading to parasite death via heme-induced oxidative stress (Roepe, 2011, PMID: 21457335). Additionally, the membranes house vital transporters such as PfCRT and PfMDR1, which are central to the parasite's ability to develop drug resistance by effluxing therapeutic agents away from their sites of action (Haldar et al., 2018, PMID: 29461471).

Other names

Food vacuoleMalarial pigment vacuoleParasite digestive vacuoleParasitophorous vacuole membranePVM

Inhibition of hemozoin formation (heme biocrystallization), disruption of membrane potential, and interference with vacuolar transporters.