Department of Immunology & Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Cell Microbiol. 2014 May;16(5):612-20. doi: 10.1111/cmi.12275. Epub 2014 Mar 12.
Plasmodium knowlesi is a simian malaria parasite primarily infecting macaque species in Southeast Asia. Although its capacity to infect humans has been recognized since the early part of the last century, it has recently become evident that human infections are widespread and potentially life threatening. Historically, P. knowlesi has proven to be a powerful tool in early studies of malaria parasites, providing key breakthroughs in understanding many aspects of Plasmodium biology. However, the necessity to grow the parasite either in macaques or in vitro using macaque blood restricted research to laboratories with access to these resources. The recent adaptation of P. knowlesi to grow and proliferate in vitro in human red blood cells (RBCs) is therefore a substantial step towards revitalizing and expanding research on P. knowlesi. Furthermore, the development of a highly efficient transfection system to genetically modify the parasite makes P. knowlesi an ideal model to study parasite biology. In this review, we elaborate on the importance of P. knowlesi in earlier phases of malaria research and highlight the future potential of the newly available human adapted P. knowlesi parasite lines.
疟原虫 knowlesi 是一种主要感染东南亚猕猴物种的灵长类疟疾寄生虫。尽管早在上个世纪初就已经认识到它能够感染人类，但最近显然人类感染已经广泛存在并且可能危及生命。历史上，疟原虫 knowlesi 已被证明是疟疾寄生虫早期研究的有力工具，为理解疟原虫生物学的许多方面提供了关键突破。然而，在猕猴体内或使用猕猴血液在体外培养寄生虫的必要性限制了研究仅限于有这些资源的实验室。最近疟原虫 knowlesi 在人红细胞（RBC）中体外生长和增殖的适应性是朝着振兴和扩大疟原虫研究迈出的重要一步。此外，开发高效的转染系统对寄生虫进行基因修饰使疟原虫 knowlesi 成为研究寄生虫生物学的理想模型。在这篇综述中，我们详细阐述了疟原虫 knowlesi 在疟疾研究早期阶段的重要性，并强调了新出现的可适应人类的疟原虫 knowlesi 寄生虫系的未来潜力。
