Strain-Specific Immunity to the Pre-Erythrocytic Stages of Plasmodium chabaudi

摘要

The malaria parasite kills between two to three million people annually and reduces the quality of life for those living in endemic areas drastically. Although protective immunity can and is generated against specific strains of malaria parasite within endemic regions, this immunity can be overcome by the introduction of a new strain and result in a new attack of malaria even in previously immune individuals. Immunity is thus specific to each antigenically distinct strain of malaria parasite. To date the evidence shows that such strain specific immunity is directed against the blood stages of the parasite. Here we attempt to determine if the immunity generated to the parasitic stages prior to its emergence from the liver is similarly strain specific. We find evidence for a strain-specific component of immunity generated by inoculation of sporozoites in mice under mefloquine treatment (which allows the development of the pre-erythrocytic stages, but limits development in the blood).