Project description:Africa’s environmental, cultural and genetic diversity can significantlygreatly influences how the populations’ respondse to infectious diseases, including malaria, caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Differences in susceptibility to malaria between populations are documented but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The Fulani ethnic group in Africa was reported to be less susceptible to malaria compared to other sympatric groups, such as the Mossi., They exhibit with lower disease rates and parasite load, as well as higher levels of serological protection. Unraveling the underlying genetic, molecular and cellularimmunological basis of this protection remains challenging, in part due to a lack of in-depth immunological characterization at the cellular level. Therefore, to address this question, we performed single cell transcriptomic RNA sequencing analysis ofon peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 126 infected and non-infected Fulani and Mossi children in rural Burkina Faso., This analysis generateding > 70,000 single-cell RNA-Seq profiles and identifiedying 30 cell subtypes. By performing cell subtype proportion analysis, we report an increased abundance of γδ T cells in infected Fulani samples compared to the Mossi counterpart. Moreover, cell-type specific differential expression analysis revealed ethnic-specific immune signatures in both infection states, and highlighted lower pro-inflammatory responses in the monocytes and T cell subtypes of the Fulani in both infection states, with a stronger activation and inflammatory profile in their B cell subtypes. Single-cell expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis in monocytes of infected samples revealed several significant regulatory variants with ethnic-specific effects. Overall, the results demonstrate the power of single cell transcriptomics in identifying ethnic, cell-type specific and genetic regulatory effects in the host immune response to malaria and provide valuable single-cell eQTL and transcriptomic data from populations underrepresented in genomic studies.

Project description:Microarray studies using synchronized Plasmodium falciparum parasites have revealed a ‘continuous cascade’ of gene expression. Reports vary regarding the stability in these transcriptional patterns in the presence of external stressors. Using Plasmodium yoelii 17X parasites replicating in vivo, we have examined differential gene expression in parasites isolated from individual mice, from independent infections, during ascending and peak parasitemia and in the presence and absence of host antibody responses. Across experimental conditions, transcription was surprisingly stable. Differential gene expression was greatest when comparing differences due to parasite load and/or host cell availability; however, even these changes were modest. Of genes that were differentially expressed, many are of unknown function. There was little to no differential expression of members of the yir and pyst-a multigene families, although a relatively large number of these were expressed during blood-stage infection regardless of experimental condition. Taken together, these results indicate that 1) P. yoelii gene expression remains stable in the presence of a changing host environment and 2) concurrent expression of a large number of the yir and pyst-a genes may function to divert host immune responses away from invariant protective antigens. 1. P. yoelii 17X gene expression profiles were determined in blood-stage parasites isolated from infected Balb/c mice (male, 8-12 weeks old) as follows: a. Mouse 1 (M1), Mouse 2 (M2), Mouse 3 (M3), Donor (D) mouse – three mice simultaneously infected with P. yoelii 17X iRBCs from a single donor mouse. Parasite RNA was isolated early during infection when parasitemia was ascending as follows: M1 - day 11 at 13.0% parasitemia; M2 - day 10 at 11.1% parasitemia; M3 - day 10 at 18.6% parasitemia; D – day 11 at 18.7% parasitemia. b. Infection #1 (I1), infection #2 (I2), infection #3 (I3), infection #4 (I4) – four groups of mice infected on four separate occasions using P. yoelii 17X iRBCs obtained from four separate donor mice. In each case, P. yoelii 17X RNA was isolated from iRBCs obtained on days 10-11 of infection when parasitemia was ascending and was ~15%. c. Day 10 (D10), Day 14 (D14) – P. yoelii 17X RNA isolated from iRBCs during infection #2 on day 10 (14% parasitemia, 14.4% reticulocytes) and on day 14 of infection #2 (43.5% parasitemia, 57.9% reticulocytes). d. WT and JHD - P. yoelii 17X RNA isolated from iRBCs during infection #4 from immunologically intact, wild-type Balb/c mice and B cell deficient, JHD mice on a Balb/c background (ascending infection, 15% parasitemia). e. QA and RMP - P. yoelii 17X RNA isolated from iRBCs during infection #1 from mice previously immunized with a preparation of membrane proteins isolated from P. yoelii 17X infected reticulocytes (PyRMP) (day 12, 13.3% parasitemia and Quil A immunized (QA) control mice (day 10, 15.6% parasitemia) 2. On each array, gene expression in P. yoelii 17X blood-stage parasites was evaluated relative to a standard comparator of purified P. yoelii 17XL total RNA (pooled RNA from 45 mice, mean parasitemia ~35%). Each sample was analyzed on three replicate arrays, one of which was a standard dye-flip. One exception was the infection #3 sample which was analyzed on only on two arrays. On each array, oligonucleotides were spotted in duplicate. 3. Through the use of the standard reference RNA, the following 15 pairwise comparisons across samples were made: (M1 vs M2); (M2 vs M3); (M1 vs M3); (D vs M1); (D vs M2); (D vs M3); (I1 vs I2); (I1 vs I3); (I1 vs I4); (I2 vs I3); (I2 vs I4); (I3 vs I4); (D10 vs D14); (WT vs JHD); (QA vs RMP)

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Mechanisms of immune evasion in P. falciparum malaria revealed by integrative gene expression profiling [RNA-seq]

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