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PARASITOLOGY: Evasion tactics of a malaria-causing parasite revealed

Malaria caused by infection with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is a major cause of death and morbidity. Among immune factors, antibodies that prevent P. falciparum from invading red blood cells (erythrocytes) are believed to be important components of immunity against malaria. However, the targets of these antibodies have not been well defined and there are a number of P. falciparum proteins that could be candidates because the parasite uses several different mechanisms to enter red blood cells. Determining the targets of the protective antibodies should help in the development of effective vaccines.

In a new study, James Beeson and colleagues at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia, have now determined that malaria-exposed Kenyan children and adults acquire antibodies that target P. falciparum proteins involved in different red blood cell-invasion mechanisms. Furthermore, the ability of a given antibody to inhibit P. falciparum invasion of red blood cells depended on the parasite using the invasion mechanism dependent on the protein targeted by that antibody. Detailed analysis identified the targets of the inhibitory antibodies as various EBA and PfRh proteins. As antibodies that target these proteins were acquired with age, the authors suggested that P. falciparum might use various red blood cell–invasion mechanisms to evade the human immune response and that protective immunity might only be engendered by a repertoire of antibodies recognizing multiple proteins involved in different invasion mechanisms.

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