Varakorn KosaisaveeRossarin SuwanaruskAdeline C.Y. ChuaDennis E. KyleBenoit MalleretRou ZhangMallika ImwongRawiwan ImerbsinRatawan UbaleeHugo Sámano-SánchezBryan K.S. YeungJessica J.Y. OngEric LombardiniFrançois NostenKevin S.W. TanPablo BifaniGeorges SnounouLaurent RéniaBruce RussellMahidol UniversityYong Loo Lin School of MedicineA-Star, Singapore Immunology NetworkUniversity of OtagoUniversity of South Florida HealthArmed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, ThailandNovartis Institute of Tropical DiseasesNuffield Department of Clinical MedicineSorbonne UniversiteCNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique2018-12-212019-03-142018-12-212019-03-142017-09-14Blood. Vol.130, No.11 (2017), 1357-136315280020000649712-s2.0-85029468428https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/41814© 2017, American Society of Hematology. All rights reserved. Two malaria parasites of Southeast Asian macaques, Plasmodium knowlesi and P cynomolgi, can infect humans experimentally. In Malaysia, where both species are common, zoonotic knowlesi malaria has recently become dominant, and cases are recorded throughout the region. By contrast, to date, only a single case of naturally acquired P cynomolgi has been found in humans. In this study, we show that whereas P cynomolgi merozoites invade monkey red blood cells indiscriminately in vitro, in humans, they are restricted to reticulocytes expressing both transferrin receptor 1 (Trf1 or CD71) and the Duffy antigen/chemokine receptor (DARC or CD234). This likely contributes to the paucity of detectable zoonotic cynomolgi malaria. We further describe postinvasion morphologic and rheologic alterations in P cynomolgi–infected human reticulocytes that are strikingly similar to those observed for P vivax. These observations stress the value of P cynomolgi as a model in the development of blood stage vaccines against vivax malaria.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyImmunology and MicrobiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1182/blood-2017-02-764787