131 Immunotherapy (2017) 9(2), 131–155 ISSN 1750-743X 10.2217/imt-2016-0091 © 2017 Future Medicine Ltd A totally effective, antimalarial vaccine must involve sporozoite and merozoite proteins (or their fragments) to ensure complete parasite blocking during critical invasion stages. This Special Report examines proteins involved in critical biological functions for parasite survival and highlights the conserved amino acid sequences of the most important proteins involved in sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes and merozoite invasion of red blood cells. Conserved high activity binding peptides are located in such proteins’ functionally strategic sites, whose functions are related to receptor binding, nutrient and protein transport, enzyme activity and molecule– molecule interactions. They are thus excellent targets for vaccine development as they block proteins binding function involved in invasion and also their biological function. First draft submitted: 21 July 2016; Accepted for publication: 6 January 2017; Published online: 27 January 2017 Keywords:฀cHABP฀•฀invasion-proteins฀•฀malaria฀•฀merozoite฀•฀sporozoite฀•฀vaccine Malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world; 3.2 billion of the world’s population live in high-risk malarial areas, 214 million new cases and 438,000 deaths were reported in 2015 [1] , caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by an Anopheles mosquito bite. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the most severe cases and deaths [1] . Important P. falciparum development stages (sporozoite [Spz], liver stage, mero- zoite [Mrz]) in the parasite’s life cycle in a human host (summarized in Figure 1) could be attacked to prevent its development and affect the course of the disease, such stages displaying a large set of stage-specific pro- teins involved in binding, invasion, gliding motility and adhesion [2–4] . Proteomic anal- ysis has shown that around 30 proteins are essential for Spz development and infectiv- ity [5] and 50 more Mrz proteins are impli- cated in invasion of erythrocytes or red blood cells (RBCs) [6] . A totally effective antimalarial vaccine must involve Spz and Mrz proteins (or fragments) to ensure complete parasite blocking during criti- cal invasion stages for activating the two main lines of defense against the parasite (humoral and cell immunity) to obtain a fully protective antimalarial vaccine capable of covering up to 95% of the world’s population. Our endeavor, over the last 30 years, has specifically involved studying the proteins involved in vital processes for the parasite’s development and growth, aimed at develop- ing a complete fully protective minimal sub- unit-based, chemically synthetized vaccine against this deadly disease [7,8] . A highly specific, sensitive and robust receptor-ligand recognition methodology was established a long time ago, involving 15–20 mer-long chemically synthetized pep- tides spanning the protein’s entire sequence to enable identifying high activity binding peptides (HABPs), labeled according to our Institute’s long-established serial numbering system [2] . Proteins involved in invasion of HepG2, RBC and endothelial cell binding contain Functionally relevant proteins in Plasmodium falciparum host cell invasion Manuel E Patarroyo *,1,2 , Martha P Alba 1,3 , Rocío Rojas- Luna 1 , Adriana Bermudez 1,4 & Jorge Aza-Conde 1 1 Fundación฀Instituto฀de฀Inmunología฀de฀ Colombia฀(FIDIC),฀Carrera฀50฀No.฀26–20฀ Bogotá,฀Colombia 2 Universidad฀Nacional฀de฀Colombia,฀ Bogotá฀DC,฀Colombia 3 Universidad฀de฀Ciencias฀Aplicadas฀y฀ Ambientales฀(UDCA),฀Bogotá,฀Colombia 4 Universidad฀del฀Rosario,฀Bogotá฀DC,฀ Colombia *Author฀for฀correspondence:฀ Tel:฀+57฀1฀222฀5277 mepatarr@gmail.com part of Special Report For reprint orders, please contact: reprints@futuremedicine.com