Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2018 Aug 21:7:e40150.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.40150.

Age, exposure and immunity

Michael White  1 , James Watson  2   3
Affiliations
Comment

Age, exposure and immunity

Michael White et al. Elife. .

Abstract

The acquisition of immunity to malaria by an individual depends on their age and the number of infectious mosquito bites they have received.

Keywords: p. falciparum; anti-disease immunity; anti-parasite immunity; epidemiology; global health; immunity; malaria.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

MW, JW No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. The network of factors used by Rodriguez-Barraquer et al. to model immunity to malaria.
Malaria develops in stages (progression shown by green arrows). First, a mosquito bite can lead to a low-level infection (which can only be detected by techniques such as PCR). Rodriguez-Barraquer et al. focused on high-density infections, where there are enough parasites in the blood to be viewed using microscopy. These infections can lead to clinical malaria, which produces a fever. Two forms of immunity can inhibit the progression of the disease (red lines): anti-parasite immunity reduces the density of blood-stage infections, and anti-disease immunity reduces the temperature caused by a given parasite density. The plots show how each type of immunity varies with age (left) and exposure (right) in the model developed by Rodriguez-Barraquer et al. Exposure is measured in terms of the number of infectious mosquito bites per year, which is also known as the annual entomological inoculation rate (aEIR).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Baird JK. Age-dependent characteristics of protection v. susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 1998;92:367–390. doi: 10.1080/00034989859366. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doolan DL, Dobaño C, Baird JK. Acquired immunity to malaria. Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 2009;22:13–36. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00025-08. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. França CT, White MT, He WQ, Hostetler JB, Brewster J, Frato G, Malhotra I, Gruszczyk J, Huon C, Lin E, Kiniboro B, Yadava A, Siba P, Galinski MR, Healer J, Chitnis C, Cowman AF, Takashima E, Tsuboi T, Tham WH, Fairhurst RM, Rayner JC, King CL, Mueller I. Identification of highly-protective combinations of Plasmodium vivax recombinant proteins for vaccine development. eLife. 2017;6:e28673. doi: 10.7554/eLife.28673. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kamya MR, Arinaitwe E, Wanzira H, Katureebe A, Barusya C, Kigozi SP, Kilama M, Tatem AJ, Rosenthal PJ, Drakeley C, Lindsay SW, Staedke SG, Smith DL, Greenhouse B, Dorsey G. Malaria transmission, infection, and disease at three sites with varied transmission intensity in Uganda: implications for malaria control. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2015;92:903–912. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.14-0312. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mueller I, Schoepflin S, Smith TA, Benton KL, Bretscher MT, Lin E, Kiniboro B, Zimmerman PA, Speed TP, Siba P, Felger I. Force of infection is key to understanding the epidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Papua New Guinean children. PNAS. 2012;109:10030–10035. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200841109. - DOI - PMC - PubMed