Chapter 5 : Fundamental Findings

Abstract:

The various life cycle stages of Plasmodium provide potential targets for immune (and drug) interventions. Apart from the use of malaria to treat the symptoms of late-stage syphilis, the early research on protective vaccines and immune mechanisms was carried out using birds, monkeys, and rodents as surrogates for the disease as it occurs in humans. This chapter discusses fundamental findings of malaria parasite. Only 4 years separated Laveran’s discovery of the human malaria parasite P. falciparum and the discovery of avian malaria parasites by Basil Danilewsky in 1884. Danilewsky (1852 to 1939), a physician from Kharkov, Russia, examined 300 birds from the Ukraine and found malaria-like parasites in their blood. Longenecker et al. provided additional support for the findings of antibody-mediated immunity as had been described by the Taliaferros. Weidanz’s contributions to the understanding of malaria immunology have involved the immunosuppressive effect of experimental infection, the function of antibody-independent T-cell-mediated immunity in resistance to malaria, and the use of genetic dissection to study the roles of cells and molecules in the immune response to experimental malaria. In 1999, Biswas confirmed the 60-year-old findings of Coggeshall and Eaton by repeatedly infecting rhesus monkeys with P. knowlesi-infected blood and measuring the immunoglobulin levels by a sensitive and specific assay. The conclusions to be drawn from using bird and monkey malarias are inescapable: protection could be achieved after vaccination with the various stages of the parasite, although in most instances this required the use of an adjuvant.