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Infection and Immunity, May 2006, p. 2996-3001, Vol. 74, No. 5
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.74.5.2996-3001.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Mixed Strain Infections and Strain-Specific Protective Immunity in the Rodent Malaria Parasite Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi in Mice

Sandra Cheesman,* Ahmed Raza, and Richard Carter

School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom

Received 21 July 2005/ Returned for modification 22 September 2005/ Accepted 26 February 2006

Important to malaria vaccine design is the phenomenon of "strain-specific" immunity. Using an accurate and sensitive assay of parasite genotype, real-time quantitative PCR, we have investigated protective immunity against mixed infections of genetically distinct cloned "strains" of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi in mice. Four strains of P. c. chabaudi, AS, AJ, AQ, and CB, were studied. One round of blood infection and drug cure with a single strain resulted in a partial reduction in parasitemia, compared with levels for naïve mice, in challenge infections with mixed inocula of the immunizing (homologous) strain and a heterologous strain. In all cases, the numbers of blood-stage parasites of each genotype were reduced to similar degrees. After a second, homologous round of infection and drug cure followed by challenge with homologous and heterologous strains, the parasitemias were reduced even further. In these circumstances, moreover, the homologous strain was reduced much faster than the heterologous strain in all of the combinations tested. That the immunity induced by a single infection did not show "strain specificity," while the immunity following a second, homologous infection did, suggests that the "strain-specific" component of protective immunity in malaria may be dependent upon immune memory. The results show that strong, protective immunity induced by and effective against malaria parasites from a single parasite species has a significant "strain-specific" component and that this immunity operates differentially against genetically distinct parasites within the same infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, The Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 131 651 3671. Fax: 44 131 651 3601. E-mail: Sandy.Cheesman{at}ed.ac.uk.

Editor: J. F. Urban, Jr.

Infection and Immunity, May 2006, p. 2996-3001, Vol. 74, No. 5
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.74.5.2996-3001.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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