Having established that heme catabolism by HO-1 is protective against the pathogenesis of cerebral (Pamplona et al, 2007; Ferreira et al, 2008; Jeney et al, 2014) and non-cerebral (Seixas et al, 2009; Ramos et al, 2019) presentations of severe malaria in mice, we put forward that labile heme acts as a major driving force in the pathogenesis of severe presentations of malaria (Ferreira et al, 2008). Here, HMOX1 is linked to malaria.