Title
Dissecting disease tolerance in plasmodium vivax malaria using the systemic degree of inflammatory perturbation
Date Issued
2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Vinhaes C.L.
Carmo T.A.
Queiroz A.T.L.
Fukutani K.F.
Araújo-Pereira M.
Lacerda M.V.G.
Barral-Netto M.
Andrade B.B.
Instituto Gonçalo Moniz
Publisher(s)
Public Library of Science
Abstract
Homeostatic perturbation caused by infection fosters two major defense strategies, resistance and tolerance, which promote the host’s survival. Resistance relates to the ability of the host to restrict the pathogen load. Tolerance minimizes collateral tissue damage without directly affecting pathogen fitness. These concepts have been explored mechanistically in murine models of malaria but only superficially in human disease. Indeed, individuals infected with Plasmodium vivax may present with asymptomatic malaria, only mild symp-toms, or be severely ill. We and others have reported a diverse repertoire of immunopatho-logical events that potentially underly susceptibility to disease severity in vivax malaria. Nevertheless, the combined epidemiologic, clinical, parasitological, and immunologic fea-tures associated with defining the disease outcomes are still not fully understood. In the present study, we perform an extensive outlining of cytokines and inflammatory proteins in plasma samples from a cohort of individuals from the Brazilian Amazon infected with P. vivax and presenting with asymptomatic (n = 108) or symptomatic (n = 134) disease (106 with mild presentation and 28 with severe malaria), as well as from uninfected endemic controls (n = 128) to elucidate these gaps further. We employ highly multidimensional Systems Immunology analyses using the molecular degree of perturbation to reveal nuances of a unique profile of systemic inflammation and imbalanced immune activation directly linked to disease severity as well as with other clinical and epidemiologic characteristics. Additionally, our findings reveal that the main factor associated with severe cases of P. vivax infection was the number of symptoms, despite of a lower global inflammatory perturbation and para-sitemia. In these participants, the number of symptoms directly correlated with perturbation of markers of inflammation and tissue damage. On the other hand, the main factor associated with non-severe infections was the parasitemia values, that correlated only with perturbation of inflammatory markers, such as IL-4 and IL-1β, with a relatively lower number of symptoms. These observations suggest that some persons present severe vivax regard-less of pathogen burden and global inflammatory perturbation. Such patients are thus little tolerant to P. vivax infection and show higher susceptibility to disrupt homeostasis and con-sequently exhibit more clinical manifestations. Other persons are capable to tolerate higher parasitemia with lower inflammatory perturbation and fewer symptoms, developing non-severe malaria. The analytical approach presented here has capability to define in more details the determinants of disease tolerance in vivax malaria.
Volume
15
Issue
11
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Medicina tropical
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85120806315
PubMed ID
Source
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
ISSN of the container
19352727
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) (grant ward number: 010409605) / Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (FNDCTCT-Amazônia), Brazil (M.B.-N.). This study was also financed in part by Coordenacão de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) (Finance Code 001), Brazil (B.B.A. and M. A.-P.). B.B.A. was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH U01AI115940). The work of K.F.F. was supported by CAPES. C.L.V received a fellowship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). T.A.C. is a scientific initiation fellow from Fundacão de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB). M.B.A. received a fellowship from the FAPESB. BBA, MBN and MVGL are investigators from CNPq (senior fellowship). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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