University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
UMMS Affiliation
Program in Molecular Medicine
Publication Date
2016-09-07
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Immunology and Infectious Disease | Infectious Disease | International Public Health | Parasitic Diseases | Tropical Medicine
Abstract
Naturally acquired immunity to Plasmodium falciparum presents a changing landscape as malaria control programs and vaccine initiatives are implemented. Determining which immunologic indicators remain surrogates of past infection, as opposed to mediators of protection, led us to compare stability of immune responses across regions with divergent malaria transmission intensities. A repeat cross-sectional study of Kenyan children from a malaria-holoendemic area and an epidemic-prone area was used to examine longitudinal antibody and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) responses to the 3D7 and FVO variants of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1). Antibodies to MSP1 were common in both study populations and did not significantly wane over a 21-month time period. IFN-gamma responses were less frequent and rapidly disappeared in children after a prolonged period of no malaria transmission. Antibody and IFN-gamma responses rarely correlated with each other; however, MSP1-specific IFN-gamma response correlated with lack of concurrent P. falciparum parasitemia of the same genotype, though only statistically significantly in the malaria-holoendemic region (odds ratio = 0.31, 95% confidence interval = 0.12-0.84). This study affirms that antimalarial antibodies are informative for evaluation of history of malaria exposure within individuals, whereas cell-mediated immunity, though short lived under natural exposure conditions, might provide an assessment of recent infection and protection from parasitemia.
Rights and Permissions
Publisher PDF posted after 12 months as allowed by the publisher's author rights policy at http://www.ajtmh.org/author-instructions.
DOI of Published Version
10.4269/ajtmh.15-0710
Source
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2016 Sep 7;95(3):580-7. Epub 2016 Aug 1. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene
PubMed ID
27481054
Repository Citation
Bowman, Natalie M.; Juliano, Jonathan J.; Snider, Cynthia J.; Kharabora, Oksana; Meshnick, Steven R.; Vulule, John; John, Chandy C.; and Moormann, Ann M., "Longevity of Genotype-Specific Immune Responses to Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Surface Protein 1 in Kenyan Children from Regions of Different Malaria Transmission Intensity" (2016). University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. 1279.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/1279
Included in
Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, International Public Health Commons, Parasitic Diseases Commons, Tropical Medicine Commons