Transgenic parasites: improving our understanding of innate immunity to malaria.
Clinical immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria takes years to develop and is never complete. One explanation for these observations is that antigenic variation enables malaria parasites to evade humoral immunity; another is that P. falciparum induces immune dysregulation, which inhibits the development of protective cellular immunity. Research described by D'Ombrain et al. in this Cell Host & Microbe issue probes how the parasite's main virulence factor PfEMP-1 might significantly alter human innate immune responses.
Fairhurst
Rick M
RM
Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, NIAID/NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. rfairhurst@niaid.nih.gov
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000276:immunology*; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000276:immunology*; D018448:Models, Immunological; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C085731:erythrocyte membrane protein 1, Plasmodium falciparum; D007371:Interferon-gamma