Authors

M Mota ¹;  ¹ GIMM, Lisbon, Portugal

Discussion

For decades, the liver stage of malaria has been viewed primarily as a silent and obligatory phase in the parasite life cycle, a transient step preceding the symptomatic blood stage. Yet, this early interaction between Plasmodium and its host is far from passive. It is a dynamic, tightly orchestrated process that determines both parasite success and, paradoxically, the outcome of protective immunity.
I will revisit the liver stage through the lens of discoveries from our laboratory over the past 25 years, from the identification of sporozoite cell traversal as a key behavioural feature of infection to more recent insights into how parasite–host interactions at this stage shape immune responses. These findings challenge traditional views that emphasize intrahepatic parasite development as the primary driver of immunity and instead highlight the importance of early parasite behaviour in programming host responses.