An Invariant Protein That Colocalizes With VAR2CSA on Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Red Cells Binds to Chondroitin Sulfate A.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells (iRBCs) bind and sequester in deep vascular beds, causing malaria-related disease and death. In pregnant women, VAR2CSA binds to chondroitin sulfate A (CSA) and mediates placental sequestration, making it the major placental malaria (PM) vaccine target.

Methods: In this study, we characterize an invariant protein associated with PM called P falciparum chondroitin sulfate A ligand (PfCSA-L).

Fetal Cytokine Balance, Erythropoietin and Thalassemia but Not Placental Malaria Contribute to Fetal Anemia Risk in Tanzania.

Fetal anemia is common in malaria-endemic areas and a risk factor for anemia as well as mortality during infancy. Placental malaria (PM) and red cell abnormalities have been proposed as possible etiologies, but the relationship between PM and fetal anemia has varied in earlier studies, and the role of red cell abnormalities has not been studied in malaria-endemic areas. In a Tanzanian birth cohort study designed to elucidate the pathogenesis of severe malaria in young infants, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of risk factors for fetal anemia.

Pregnancy outcomes and risk of placental malaria after artemisinin-based and quinine-based treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria in pregnancy: a WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.

Background: Malaria in pregnancy, including asymptomatic infection, has a detrimental impact on foetal development. Individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis was conducted to compare the association between antimalarial treatments and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including placental malaria, accompanied with the gestational age at diagnosis of uncomplicated falciparum malaria infection.

Methods: A systematic review and one-stage IPD meta-analysis of studies assessing the efficacy of artemisinin-based and quinine-based treatments for patent microscopic uncomplicated falciparum malaria infection (hereinafter uncomplicated falciparum malaria) in pregnancy was conducted.

Anti-PfGARP activates programmed cell death of parasites and reduces severe malaria.

Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum remains the leading single-agent cause of mortality in children, yet the promise of an effective vaccine has not been fulfilled. Here, using our previously described differential screening method to analyse the proteome of blood-stage P. falciparum parasites, we identify P.