Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Parasitology and Entomology, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 2 Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, Biopolis, Singapore
  • 3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
  • 4 Department of Global Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
  • 5 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Singapore
  • 6 Department of Molecular Tropical Medicine and Genetics, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 7 Department of Veterinary Medicine and
  • 8 Department of Entomology, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 9 Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases, Singapore
  • 10 Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
  • 11 Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France; and
Blood, 2017 09 14;130(11):1357-1363.
PMID: 28698207 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2017-02-764787

Abstract

Two malaria parasites of Southeast Asian macaques, Plasmodium knowlesi and P cynomolgi, can infect humans experimentally. In Malaysia, where both species are common, zoonotic knowlesi malaria has recently become dominant, and cases are recorded throughout the region. By contrast, to date, only a single case of naturally acquired P cynomolgi has been found in humans. In this study, we show that whereas P cynomolgi merozoites invade monkey red blood cells indiscriminately in vitro, in humans, they are restricted to reticulocytes expressing both transferrin receptor 1 (Trf1 or CD71) and the Duffy antigen/chemokine receptor (DARC or CD234). This likely contributes to the paucity of detectable zoonotic cynomolgi malaria. We further describe postinvasion morphologic and rheologic alterations in P cynomolgi-infected human reticulocytes that are strikingly similar to those observed for P vivax These observations stress the value of P cynomolgi as a model in the development of blood stage vaccines against vivax malaria.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.