Can nature's defence against malaria be mimicked by the development of host-directed therapies

There is an evolutionary battle being fought and the battleground is the humble erythrocyte. The two foes are the genomes of the malarial parasites and their human host and the battle has been waging since the beginning of vertebrate evolution. On the one hand, the erythrocyte must ensure the oxygenation of tissues through its transport of oxygen and yet, on the other, it supplies the malarial parasite with an essential home during the prolonged blood-stage of the life cycle of this most ferocious of human pathogens.