Blood Stage Malaria Disrupts Humoral Immunity to the Pre-erythrocytic Stage Circumsporozoite Protein.

ABSTRACT: Many current malaria vaccines target the pre-erythrocytic stage of infection in the liver. However, in malaria-endemic regions, increased blood stage exposure is associated with decreased vaccine efficacy, thereby challenging current vaccine efforts. We hypothesized that pre-erythrocytic humoral immunity is directly disrupted by blood stage infection. To investigate this possibility, we used Plasmodium-antigen tetramers to analyze B cells after infection with either late liver stage arresting parasites or wild-type parasites that progress to the blood stage. Our data demonstrate that immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against the pre-erythrocytic antigen, circumsporozoite protein (CSP), are generated only in response to the attenuated, but not the wild-type, infection. Further analyses reve

SUBMITTER: Keitany GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5476299 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature