Long-Lived Antibody and B Cell Memory Responses to the Human Malaria Parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax

PLoS Pathogens

Jackie Cook¹  Julius Clemence R. Hafalla¹  Patrick H. Corran¹  Lucy C. Okell¹  Eleanor M. Riley¹  Kanitta Thaikla²  Chaisuree Suphavilai²  Jiraprapa Wipasa²  Witaya Liewsaree³ 

[1] Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom;Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand;Vector Borne Disease Section, Office of Disease Prevention and Control, Chiang Mai, Thailand

关键词: Malaria;    Enzyme-linked immunoassays;    Plasmodium;    Memory B cells;    Antibodies;    Antibody response;    Malarial parasites;    Parasitic diseases;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1000770

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Antibodies constitute a critical component of the naturally acquired immunity that develops following frequent exposure to malaria. However, specific antibody titres have been reported to decline rapidly in the absence of reinfection, supporting the widely perceived notion that malaria infections fail to induce durable immunological memory responses. Currently, direct evidence for the presence or absence of immune memory to malaria is limited. In this study, we analysed the longevity of both antibody and B cell memory responses to malaria antigens among individuals who were living in an area of extremely low malaria transmission in northern Thailand, and who were known either to be malaria naïve or to have had a documented clinical attack of P. falciparum and/or P. vivax in the past 6 years. We found that exposure to malaria results in the generation of relatively avid antigen-specific antibodies and the establishment of populations of antigen-specific memory B cells in a significant proportion of malaria-exposed individuals. Both antibody and memory B cell responses to malaria antigens were stably maintained over time in the absence of reinfection. In a number of cases where antigen-specific antibodies were not detected in plasma, stable frequencies of antigen-specific memory B cells were nonetheless observed, suggesting that circulating memory B cells may be maintained independently of long-lived plasma cells. We conclude that infrequent malaria infections are capable of inducing long-lived antibody and memory B cell responses.

【 授权许可】

CC BY