Evaluation of cytoadhesive capacities of Plasmodium vivax from Brazilian Amazon patients

Author(s)

Bruna Oliveira e Carvalho

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2010-05-28

Examining board members

Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa; Claudio Romero Farias Marinho; Sabrina Epiphanio; Selma Giorgio

• Advisor: Fabio Trindade Maranhão Costa

Abstract

Vivax malaria has been considered for a long time a benign infection; however severe complications, as observed in P. falciparum, such as cerebral malaria, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), liver dysfunction, severe thrombocytopenia and low birth weight due placental infection have also been reported worldwide for P. vivax-infected patients. In falciparum malaria, these symptoms are associated to sequestration of P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes (Pf-IE) that bind to several host receptors, including CD36, ICAM-1 and CSA. Nonetheless, direct evidence of P. vivax-infected erythrocytes (Pv-IE) sequestration is missing and binding analyzes of this species is lacking. Pv-IE obtained from patients in the Brazilian Amazon were enriched by Percoll® gradient and parasite adherence was tested to a panel of cells expressing endothelial receptors known to mediate cytoadhesion of P. falciparum, in static and flow conditions. Here we show that mature Pv-IE cytoadhere both under static and flow conditions, albeit at levels about 10-fold lower than those observed for P. falciparum. We further demonstrate that cytoadhesion by P. vivax was in part mediated by members of the VIR family, parasite-derived proteins expressed at the infected erythrocyte surface and encoded by a superfamily of variant genes (vir). These data open perspectives for a better understanding of the pathological phenomenon related to severe P. vivax malaria, including the discovery of novel parasite ligand(s) and host receptor(s) (AU)