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Credit: Malayaka house
Children repeatedly infected with malaria have been known to become asymptomatic, and researchers have found evidence suggesting a subset of γδ T cells play a role in this phenomenon.
Studying young children in Uganda, the team discovered that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells.
This appeared to facilitate immunological tolerance of the malaria parasite and, therefore, a reduction in clinical symptoms.
“These inflammatory immune cells are depleted in children with repeated malaria exposure, and those that remain behave differently than the same cell types in children who have not previously been infected,” said Prasanna Jagannathan, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
He and his colleagues reported these findings in Science Translational Medicine.
The researchers collected data on malaria infections, disease symptoms, and immune responses in 78 children who were monitored from infancy as part of a research collaboration between UCSF and Makarere University in Kampala, Africa. The study was conducted in Tororo, Uganda.
At 1 year of age, all children showed clinical symptoms of malaria with each infection. At 4 years, fewer than 10% were symptom-free upon infection. But 1 year later, more than 20% were symptom-free when infected.
The researchers found that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells. They observed a decrease in cell proliferation and in the production of inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α) in response to malaria antigens.
Repeated malaria infection was also associated with the upregulation of immunoregulatory pathways—increased expression of genes such as HAVCR2, FCRL6, LYN, BATF, and B3GAT1—that dampen the immune response.
Children with these characteristics were less likely than their peers to exhibit clinical symptoms upon subsequent malaria infection.
So it seems the depletion of Vδ2+ γδ T cells is beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, said Margaret Feeney, MD, of UCSF. Individuals may no longer suffer symptoms, but they might not clear the parasite and could remain infectious.
Although this discovery has not provided a disease-fighting strategy as of yet, it does point to further avenues of study, according to Dr Feeney.
“We want to understand whether this is a generalizable phenomenon that also occurs among those who are first exposed to malaria as adults and in regions where malaria incidence is lower,” she said.
Dr Feeney speculates that malaria infection, by reshaping immune responses, might influence a person’s susceptibility to, and protection from, other infectious diseases. 
Credit: Malayaka house
Children repeatedly infected with malaria have been known to become asymptomatic, and researchers have found evidence suggesting a subset of γδ T cells play a role in this phenomenon.
Studying young children in Uganda, the team discovered that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells.
This appeared to facilitate immunological tolerance of the malaria parasite and, therefore, a reduction in clinical symptoms.
“These inflammatory immune cells are depleted in children with repeated malaria exposure, and those that remain behave differently than the same cell types in children who have not previously been infected,” said Prasanna Jagannathan, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
He and his colleagues reported these findings in Science Translational Medicine.
The researchers collected data on malaria infections, disease symptoms, and immune responses in 78 children who were monitored from infancy as part of a research collaboration between UCSF and Makarere University in Kampala, Africa. The study was conducted in Tororo, Uganda.
At 1 year of age, all children showed clinical symptoms of malaria with each infection. At 4 years, fewer than 10% were symptom-free upon infection. But 1 year later, more than 20% were symptom-free when infected.
The researchers found that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells. They observed a decrease in cell proliferation and in the production of inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α) in response to malaria antigens.
Repeated malaria infection was also associated with the upregulation of immunoregulatory pathways—increased expression of genes such as HAVCR2, FCRL6, LYN, BATF, and B3GAT1—that dampen the immune response.
Children with these characteristics were less likely than their peers to exhibit clinical symptoms upon subsequent malaria infection.
So it seems the depletion of Vδ2+ γδ T cells is beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, said Margaret Feeney, MD, of UCSF. Individuals may no longer suffer symptoms, but they might not clear the parasite and could remain infectious.
Although this discovery has not provided a disease-fighting strategy as of yet, it does point to further avenues of study, according to Dr Feeney.
“We want to understand whether this is a generalizable phenomenon that also occurs among those who are first exposed to malaria as adults and in regions where malaria incidence is lower,” she said.
Dr Feeney speculates that malaria infection, by reshaping immune responses, might influence a person’s susceptibility to, and protection from, other infectious diseases.
Credit: Malayaka house
Children repeatedly infected with malaria have been known to become asymptomatic, and researchers have found evidence suggesting a subset of γδ T cells play a role in this phenomenon.
Studying young children in Uganda, the team discovered that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells.
This appeared to facilitate immunological tolerance of the malaria parasite and, therefore, a reduction in clinical symptoms.
“These inflammatory immune cells are depleted in children with repeated malaria exposure, and those that remain behave differently than the same cell types in children who have not previously been infected,” said Prasanna Jagannathan, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
He and his colleagues reported these findings in Science Translational Medicine.
The researchers collected data on malaria infections, disease symptoms, and immune responses in 78 children who were monitored from infancy as part of a research collaboration between UCSF and Makarere University in Kampala, Africa. The study was conducted in Tororo, Uganda.
At 1 year of age, all children showed clinical symptoms of malaria with each infection. At 4 years, fewer than 10% were symptom-free upon infection. But 1 year later, more than 20% were symptom-free when infected.
The researchers found that repeated malaria infection was associated with the loss and dysfunction of Vδ2+ γδ T cells. They observed a decrease in cell proliferation and in the production of inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α) in response to malaria antigens.
Repeated malaria infection was also associated with the upregulation of immunoregulatory pathways—increased expression of genes such as HAVCR2, FCRL6, LYN, BATF, and B3GAT1—that dampen the immune response.
Children with these characteristics were less likely than their peers to exhibit clinical symptoms upon subsequent malaria infection.
So it seems the depletion of Vδ2+ γδ T cells is beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, said Margaret Feeney, MD, of UCSF. Individuals may no longer suffer symptoms, but they might not clear the parasite and could remain infectious.
Although this discovery has not provided a disease-fighting strategy as of yet, it does point to further avenues of study, according to Dr Feeney.
“We want to understand whether this is a generalizable phenomenon that also occurs among those who are first exposed to malaria as adults and in regions where malaria incidence is lower,” she said.
Dr Feeney speculates that malaria infection, by reshaping immune responses, might influence a person’s susceptibility to, and protection from, other infectious diseases.