Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Churchill Hospital, Old Road, Oxford, OX3 7LJ, UK. britta.urban@ndm.ox.ac.uk
The capacity of malarial infection to suppress the patient's immune responses both to the parasite and to other antigens has long puzzled researchers. A prime suspect, the parasite-produced pigment hemozoin, has now been clearly shown to mediate immunosuppression by inhibiting dendritic cell activity.