Molecular mechanisms of Plasmodium falciparum placental adhesion . Microreview
| Autor: | B. Pouvelle, Pierre Buffet, Artur Scherf, Jürg Gysin |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: |
Genetics
education.field_of_study biology Cell adhesion molecule CD36 Immunology Population Plasmodium falciparum biology.organism_classification Microbiology Phenotype Cell biology Syncytiotrophoblast medicine.anatomical_structure Virology parasitic diseases biology.protein Tissue tropism medicine Antigenic variation education |
| Zdroj: | Cellular Microbiology. 3:125-131 |
| ISSN: | 1462-5822 1462-5814 |
| DOI: | 10.1046/j.1462-5822.2001.00109.x |
| Popis: | In natural Plasmodium falciparum infections, parasitized erythrocytes (PEs) circulate in the peripheral blood for a period corresponding roughly to the first part of the erythrocytic life cycle (ring stage). Later, in blood-stage development, parasite-encoded adhesion molecules are inserted into the erythrocyte membrane, preventing the circulation of the PEs. The principal molecule mediating PE adhesion is P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), encoded by the polymorphic var gene family. The population of parasites is subject to clonal antigenic variation through changes in var expression, and a single PfEMP1 variant is expressed at the PE surface in a mutually exclusive manner. In addition to its role in immune evasion, switches in PfEMP1 expression may be associated with fundamental changes in parasite tissue tropism in malaria patients. A switch from CD36 binding to chondroitin sulphate A (CSA) binding may lead to extensive sequestration of PEs in placenta syncytiotrophoblasts. This is probably a key event in malaria pathogenesis during pregnancy. The CSA-binding phenotype of mature PEs is linked to another distinct adhesive phenotype: the recently described CSA-independent cytoadhesion of ring-stage PEs. Thus, a subpopulation of PEs that sequentially displays these two different phenotypes may bind to an individual endothelial cell or syncytiotrophoblast throughout the asexual blood-stage cycle. This suggests that non-circulating (cryptic) parasite subpopulations are present in malaria patients. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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