Loss of endothelial protein C receptors links coagulation and inflammation to parasite sequestration in cerebral malaria in African children.

ABSTRACT: Cerebral malaria (CM) is a major cause of mortality in African children and the mechanisms underlying its development, namely how malaria-infected erythrocytes (IEs) cause disease and why the brain is preferentially affected, remain unclear. Brain microhemorrhages in CM suggest a clotting disorder, but whether this phenomenon is important in pathogenesis is debated. We hypothesized that localized cerebral microvascular thrombosis in CM is caused by a decreased expression of the anticoagulant and protective receptors thrombomodulin (TM) and endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) and that low constitutive expression of these regulatory molecules in the brain make it particularly vulnerable. Autopsies from Malawian children with CM showed cerebral fibrin clots and loss of EPCR, colocalized wit

SUBMITTER: Moxon CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3731936 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature