Abstract: Cerebral malaria is a severe complication of malaria. Early studies suggest that cerebral malaria is related to cytoadherence of parasitized red blood cells to the microvessel endothelium of brain. However， more and more evidence supported that the cause of cerebral malaria is uncontrolled inflammatory cytokines and infiltration of lymphocytes in brain microvessel. The article summarizes the research progress on immunological mechanism of cerebral malaria.

Key words: Inflammatory cytokine, Cerebral malaria, CD8⁺T cells