malaria infection

Protopanaxadiol-type ginsenosides have remarkably suppressive activity during early infection, while acidic ginseng polysaccharides have significant prophylactic activity against malaria by stimulating the immune system.

The burden of post-malaria cognitive impairment is often overlooked. Given the large number of infections occurring worldwide, the magnitude of the problem is likely to be substantial.

To investigate the effect of caspase-12 deficiency on IFN-γ-independent control of blood-stage malaria, we compared lethal Plasmodium yoelii 17XL infection in wild-type C57BL/6J and caspase-12−/− mice. Infected caspase-12−/− mice exhibited higher parasitaemia than WT mice on days 8 and 9 post-inoculation, but all WT and caspase-12−/− mice succumbed by day 10. In addition, infected caspase-12−/− mice had significantly elevated levels of IFN-γ, TNF, IL-18, and IL-10 in sera compared to infected WT mice.

Malaria infection is initiated by Plasmodium sporozoites infecting the liver. Preventing sporozoite infection would block the obligatory first step of the infection and perhaps reduce disease severity.

Successful resolution of malaria infection requires induction of proinflammatory immune responses that facilitate parasite clearance; however, failure to regulate this inflammation leads to immune-mediated pathology.

In adult patients with fever in this setting, malaria parasitaemia contributes to anaemia and is of public health impact. Our results also provide a baseline prevalence for malaria parasitaemia in febrile adults in health units in this setting.

Various factors impact the severity of malaria, including the nutritional status of the host. Vitamin E, an intra and extracellular anti-oxidant, is one such nutrient whose absence was shown previously to negatively affect Plasmodium development.