Journal article
Patterns of protective associations differ for antibodies to P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes and merozoites in immunity against malaria in children
JA Chan, DI Stanisic, MF Duffy, LJ Robinson, E Lin, JW Kazura, CL King, PM Siba, FJI Fowkes, I Mueller, JG Beeson
European Journal of Immunology | WILEY | Published : 2017
Abstract
Acquired antibodies play an important role in immunity to P. falciparum malaria and are typically directed towards surface antigens expressed by merozoites and infected erythrocytes (IEs). The importance of specific IE surface antigens as immune targets remains unclear. We evaluated antibodies and protective associations in two cohorts of children in Papua New Guinea. We used genetically-modified P. falciparum to evaluate the importance of PfEMP1 and a P. falciparum isolate with a virulent phenotype. Our findings suggested that PfEMP1 was the dominant target of antibodies to the IE surface, including functional antibodies that promoted opsonic phagocytosis by monocytes. Antibodies were assoc..
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Awarded by National Institutes of Health
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank all the study participants and their parents, staff involved in the study from Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, Madang, and Linda Reiling, Herbert Opi and Philippe Boeuf for critical reading of the manuscript. Funding was provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Program grant, senior research fellowship to JG Beeson and I Mueller), Australian Postgraduate Award to J Chan, Early Career Research fellowship to U Robinson, the Australian Research Council (Future fellowships to JG Beeson and FJI Fowkes) and the National Institutes for Health (to I Mueller, JW Kazura and CL King). The authors gratefully acknowledge support for the Burnet Institute from the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program, and NHMRC Independent Research Institutes Infrastructure Scheme.