CASP8 and malaria: Importantly, after correcting for African ancestry and other possible confounding factors in the association analysis between the investigated variants and susceptibility to malaria and parasite density, results showed significant associations between rs10562972 (FAS), rs3834129 (CASP8), and rs17880560 (TP53) and at least one of the malaria parameters, suggesting that these INDELs may influence the risk of malaria onset in the occurrence of Plasmodium infection as well as on parasite levels.