Two-way Infection

Malaria, caused by the microorganism Plasmodium, kills an estimated half-a-million annually, mostly young children living in Africa. There are many things that can worsen malarial disease, such as the person’s health and genetic make-up, and co-infections with other pathogens are another big contributor. By the age of six months, most children living in Sub-Saharan Africa have been in contact with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) – a type of gammaherpesvirus. Researchers have looked into whether having had this infection could be a risk factor for Plasmodium infection. Using a mouse model, they found that having gammaherpesvirus and Plasmodium infection together weakens the immune system’s ability to make an anti-malaria response. In the spleen of mice given both pathogens (pictured right), T cells (in red) that help make antibody-producing B cells (in blue and green) are reduced in number compared to spleens with either no, or a single infection (first three images left to right).

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Image from work by Caline Matar and colleagues
• Emory University School of Medicine, USA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PLOS Pathogens, May 2015