IgG antibodies to synthetic GPI are biomarkers of immune-status to both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria in young children

Franca, Camila T., Li Wai Suen, Connie S., Carmagnac, Amandine, Lin, Enmoore, Kiniboro, Benson, Siba, Peter, Schofield, Louis, and Mueller, Ivo (2017) IgG antibodies to synthetic GPI are biomarkers of immune-status to both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria in young children. Malaria Journal, 16. 386.

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Abstract

Background: Further reduction in malaria prevalence and its eventual elimination would be greatly facilitated by the development of biomarkers of exposure and/or acquired immunity to malaria, as well as the deployment of effective vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. A better understanding of the acquisition of immunity in naturally-exposed populations is essential for the identification of antigens useful as biomarkers, as well as to inform rational vaccine development.

Methods: ELISA was used to measure total IgG to a synthetic form of glycosylphosphatidylinositol from P. falciparum (PfGPI) in a cohort of 1-3 years old Papua New Guinea children with well-characterized individual differences in exposure to P. falciparum and P. vivax blood-stage infections. The relationship between IgG levels to PfGPI and measures of recent and past exposure to P. falciparum and P. vivax infections was investigated, as well as the association between antibody levels and prospective risk of clinical malaria over 16 months of follow-up.

Results: Total IgG levels to PfGPI were low in the young children tested. Antibody levels were higher in the presence of P. falciparum or P. vivax infections, but short-lived. High IgG levels were associated with higher risk of P. falciparum malaria (IRR 1.33-1.66, P = 0.008-0.027), suggesting that they are biomarkers of increased exposure to P. falciparum infections. Given the cross-reactive nature of antibodies to PfGPI, high IgG levels were also associated with reduced risk of P. vivax malaria (IRR 0.65-0.67, P = 0.039-0.044), indicating that these antibodies are also markers of acquired immunity to P. vivax.

Conclusions: This study highlights that in young children, IgG to PfGPI might be a useful marker of immune-status to both P. falciparum and P. vivax infections, and potentially useful to help malaria control programs to identify populations at-risk. Further functional studies are necessary to confirm the potential of PfGPI as a target for vaccine development.

Item ID: 51256
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1475-2875
Keywords: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, malaria elimination, IgG antibody, biomarker of exposure, GPI, Glycosylphosphatidylinositol, clinical malaria, protection, exposure
Additional Information:

© The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Funders: Southwest Pacific International Centre of Excellence in Malaria Research (SPICEMR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Malaria Elimination Science Alliance (MESA), Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program, University of Melbourne
Projects and Grants: SPICEMR NIH Grant U19AI089686, NIH AI063135, NHMRC #1021544, NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship #1043345
Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2017 07:35
FoR Codes: 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3207 Medical microbiology > 320704 Medical parasitology @ 100%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences @ 100%
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