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Infection and Immunity, December 1999, p. 6369-6374, Vol. 67, No. 12
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Malaria Transmission and Naturally Acquired Immunity to PfEMP-1

Karen P. Piper,1,* Rhian E. Hayward,1,dagger Martin J. Cox,2,Dagger and Karen P. Day1

Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom,1 and Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, Madang, Papua New Guinea2

Received 12 March 1999/Returned for modification 1 June 1999/Accepted 17 September 1999

Why there are so few gametocytes (the transmission stage of malaria) in the blood of humans infected with Plasmodium spp. is intriguing. This may be due either to reproductive restraint by the parasite or to unidentified gametocyte-specific immune-mediated clearance mechanisms. We propose another mechanism, a cross-stage immunity to Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP-1). This molecule is expressed on the surface of the erythrocyte infected with either trophozoite or early gametocyte parasites. Immunoglobulin G antibodies to PfEMP-1, expressed on both life cycle stages, were measured in residents from an area where malaria is endemic, Papua New Guinea. Anti-PfEMP-1 prevalence increased with age, mirroring the decline in both the prevalence and the density of asexual and transmission stages in erythrocytes. These data led us to propose that immunity to PfEMP-1 may influence malaria transmission by regulation of the production of gametocytes. This regulation may be achieved in two ways: (i) by controlling asexual proliferation and density and (ii) by affecting gametocyte maturation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: WTCEID, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1865 271247. Fax: 44 1865 281245. E-mail: karen.piper{at}ceid.ox.ac.uk.

dagger Present address: NIAID/LPD, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Dagger Present address: University of Coventry, Coventry, United Kingdom.

Infection and Immunity, December 1999, p. 6369-6374, Vol. 67, No. 12
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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