Journal
JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Volume 185, Issue 11, Pages 1688-1691Publisher
UNIV CHICAGO PRESS
DOI: 10.1086/340420
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Antibodies to the highly diverse variant surface antigens (VSAs) expressed on Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes are thought to play a role in the development of naturally acquired immunity to malaria. It has been suggested that children gradually acquire immunity through the piecemeal acquisition of antibodies to a large number of VSAs over several years of exposure. However, in a cross-sectional survey of Kenyan children before the malaria-transmission season, the proportion of children with antibodies recognizing randomly sampled VSAs was found to be strikingly higher among children with microscopically detectable P. falciparum infection, compared with those without detectable infection. We suggest that parasitization status may be an important consideration in longitudinal assessments of the protective role of some anti-parasite immune responses and support this suggestion with data from a prospective study of VSA antibodies in a group of children who subsequently had severe malaria.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available