the specific immune response. they exert their effect by activating the complement cascade, stimulating phagocytic cells into endocytosis through adhesion to an external surface of the antigenic substances, thus 'marking' it as offensive. humoral or cell-mediated immunity consists of many interlinking mechanisms that essentially aim to prevent infection entering the body (through external barriers or hostile internal environments) and then kill any micro-organisms or foreign particles that succeed in penetration. the cell-mediated component consists of many white blood cells (such as monocytes, neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, basophils, mast cells, natural killer cells, and eosinophils) that target foreign bodies by a variety of different mechanisms. in the case of malaria, both systems would be targeted to attempt to increase the potential response generated, thus ensuring the maximum chance of preventing disease. "anti-toxic immunity" addresses the symptoms; it refers to the suppression of the immune response associated with the production of factors that either induce symptoms or reduce the effect that any toxic by-products (of micro-organism presence) have on the development of disease. for example, it has been shown that tumor necrosis factor-alpha has a central role in generating the symptoms experienced in severe p. falciparum malaria. thus a therapeutic vaccine could target the production of tnf-a, preventing respiratory distress and cerebral symptoms. this approach has serious limitations as it would not reduce the parasitic load; rather, it only reduces the associated pathology. as a result, there are substantial difficulties in evaluating efficacy in human trials. taking this information into consideration an ideal vaccine candidate would attempt to generate a more substantial cell-mediated and antibody response on parasite presentation. this would have the benefit of increasing the rate of parasite clearance, thus reducing the experienced symptoms and providing a level of consistent future immunity against the parasite. potential targets