Deletion of a Malaria Invasion Gene Reduces Death and Anemia, in Model Hosts

作者：Gomez Noe D^*; Safeukui Innocent; Adelani Aanuoluwa A; Tewari Rita; Reddy Janardan K; Rao Sam; Holder Anthony; Buffet Pierre; Mohandas Narla; Haldar Kasturi

来源：PLos One, 2011, 6(9): e25477.

DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0025477

Malaria parasites induce complex cellular and clinical phenotypes, including anemia, cerebral malaria and death in a wide range of mammalian hosts. Host genes and parasite 'toxins' have been implicated in malarial disease, but the contribution of parasite genes remains to be fully defined. Here we assess disease in BALB/c mice and Wistar rats infected by the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei with a gene knock out for merozoite surface protein (MSP) 7. MSP7 is not essential for infection but in P. falciparum, it enhances erythrocyte invasion by 20%. In vivo, as compared to wild type, the P. berghei Delta msp7 mutant is associated with an abrogation of death and a decrease from 3% to 2% in peak, circulating parasitemia. The Delta msp7 mutant is also associated with less anemia and modest increase in the size of follicles in the spleen. Together these data show that deletion of a single parasite invasion ligand modulates blood stage disease, as measured by death and anemia. This work is the first to assess the contribution of a gene present in all plasmodial species in severe disease.

• 出版日期2011-9-28
• 单位河北医科大学; 西北大学