In:
mSphere, American Society for Microbiology
Abstract:
Severe malaria and death related to malaria disproportionately affect sub-Saharan children under 5 years of age, commonly manifesting as cerebral malaria and/or severe malarial anemia. In contrast, adults in malaria-endemic regions tend to experience asymptomatic or mild disease. Our findings indicate that natural immunity to malaria targets specific regions within the EPCR-binding domain, particularly peptides containing EPCR-binding residues. Epitopes containing these residues may be promising targets for vaccines or therapeutics directed against severe malaria. Our approach provides insight into the development of natural immunity to a binding target linked to severe malaria by characterizing an “adult-like” response as recognizing a proportion of epitopes within the PfEMP1 protein, particularly regions that mediate EPCR binding. This “adult-like” response likely requires multiple years of malaria exposure, as increases in pediatric serologic response over a single malaria transmission season do not appear significant.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2379-5042
DOI:
10.1128/msphere.00451-23
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society for Microbiology
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2844248-9