Thompson J, Millington O R, Garside P, Brewer J M
Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, UK.
Parasite Immunol. 2008 Apr;30(4):223-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3024.2007.01011.x.
Malaria infects 500 million people and kills an estimated 2.7 million annually, representing one of the most significant diseases in the world. However, efforts to develop effective vaccines have met with limited success. One reason is our lack of basic knowledge of how and where the immune system responds to parasite antigens. This is important as the early events during induction of an immune response influence the acquisition of effector function and development of memory responses. Our knowledge of the interactions of Plasmodia with the host immune system has largely been derived through in vitro study. This is a significant issue as the component parts of the immune system do not work in isolation and their interactions occur in distinct and specialized micro- and macro-anatomical locations that can only be assessed in the physiological context, in vivo. In this context, the availability of transgenic malaria parasites over the last 10 years has greatly enhanced our ability to understand and evaluate factors involved in host-parasite interactions in vivo. In this article, we review the current status of this area and speculate on what parasite transgenesis approaches will tell us about the development of Plasmodium-specific immune responses in the future.
疟疾每年感染5亿人，估计导致270万人死亡，是世界上最严重的疾病之一。然而，开发有效疫苗的努力成效有限。一个原因是我们对免疫系统如何以及在何处对寄生虫抗原作出反应缺乏基础知识。这很重要，因为免疫反应诱导过程中的早期事件会影响效应功能的获得和记忆反应的发展。我们对疟原虫与宿主免疫系统相互作用的了解很大程度上来自体外研究。这是一个重大问题，因为免疫系统的组成部分并非孤立运作，它们的相互作用发生在不同且专门的微观和宏观解剖位置，而这些位置只能在体内的生理环境中进行评估。在这种情况下，过去10年转基因疟原虫的出现极大地增强了我们在体内理解和评估宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用相关因素的能力。在本文中，我们回顾了该领域的现状，并推测寄生虫转基因方法未来将如何帮助我们了解疟原虫特异性免疫反应的发展。
