The Liver-Stage Plasmodium Infection Is a Critical Checkpoint for Development of Experimental Cerebral Malaria.

ABSTRACT: Cerebral malaria is a life-threatening complication of malaria in humans, and the underlying pathogenic mechanisms are widely analyzed in a murine model of experimental cerebral malaria (ECM). Here, we show abrogation of ECM by hemocoel sporozoite-induced infection of a transgenic Plasmodium berghei line that overexpresses profilin, whereas these parasites remain fully virulent in transfusion-mediated blood infection. We, thus, demonstrate the importance of the clinically silent liver-stage infection for modulating the onset of ECM. Even though both parasites triggered comparable splenic immune cell expansion and accumulation of antigen-experienced CD8⁺ T cells in the brain, infection with transgenic sporozoites did not lead to cerebral vascular damages and suppressed the

SUBMITTER: Sato Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6837997 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature