Multiple Plasmodium vivax proteins of Pv-fam-a family interact with human erythrocyte receptor Band 3 and have a role in red cell invasion.

Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of receptor-ligand biology during host-parasite interaction helps in developing therapeutic targets. Several Pv-fam-a family proteins of Plasmodium vivax bind to host erythrocytes but their erythrocyte receptors remains to be explored. Here, we show that three merozoite proteins (PvTRAg36, PvATRAg74, and PvTRAg38) of this family interact with Band 3 on human erythrocytes through its three exofacial loops (loop 1, loop 3, and loop 6). These parasite proteins also interfered with the parasite growth in in-vitro, and the inhibition rate seems to be associated with their binding affinity to Band 3. This redundancy in receptor-ligand interaction could be one of the probable mechanism parasite utilizes to invade the host erythrocyte more efficiently.