The role of immunity in mosquito-induced attenuation of malaria virulence.
A recent study found that mosquito-transmitted (MT) lines of rodent malaria parasites elicit a more effective immune response than non-transmitted lines maintained by serial blood passage (non-MT), thereby causing lower parasite densities in the blood and less pathology to the host. The authors attribute these changes to higher diversity in expression of antigen-encoding genes in MT cf. non-MT lines. Alternative explanations that are equally parsimonious with these new data, and results from previous studies, suggest that this conclusion may be premature.
KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, PO Box 230, Kilifi, Kenya. mmackinnon@kemri-wellcome.org.
Margaret J
MJ
Mackinnon
D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000469:parasitology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000276:immunology*; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000469:parasitology*; D016788:Plasmodium chabaudi / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity*