Journal article
New insights into acquisition, boosting, and longevity of immunity to malaria in pregnant women
FJ Fowkes, R McGready, NJ Cross, M Hommel, JA Simpson, SR Elliott, JS Richards, K Lackovic, J Viladpai-Nguen, D Narum, T Tsuboi, RF Anders, F Nosten, JG Beeson
Journal of Infectious Diseases | OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC | Published : 2012
Abstract
Background. How antimalarial antibodies are acquired and maintained during pregnancy and boosted after reinfection with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax is unknown.Methods.A nested case-control study of 467 pregnant women (136 Plasmodium-infected cases and 331 uninfected control subjects) in northwestern Thailand was conducted. Antibody levels to P. falciparum and P. vivax merozoite antigens and the pregnancy-specific PfVAR2CSA antigen were determined at enrollment (median 10 weeks gestation) and throughout pregnancy until delivery.Results.Antibodies to P. falciparum and P. vivax were highly variable over time, and maintenance of high levels of antimalarial antibodies involved high..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (to J.B., F. F., and J. R.), Infrastructure for Research Institutes Support Scheme Grant, Australian Research Council (to J. B.), and Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support. SMRU is part of the Mahidol Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Unit supported by the Wellcome Trust of Great Britain. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.