Immunoprecipitating antibodies against blood stage antigens of Plasmodium falciparum in cerebral and non-cerebral malaria patients.

Immunoprecipitating antibodies were determined in paired sera of 31 patients with cerebral malaria (CM), of whom 14 had complicated cerebral malaria (CCM) and 17 had uncomplicated cerebral malaria (UCCM), 15 single specimens of patients with acute uncomplicated (AM) malaria taken on the day of admission and 8 healthy controls. All but one patient were admitted within the first three days of the onset of fever. More than 20 precipitating bands were observed, of which the predominating molecules were the Mr greater than 200, 180, 157, 135, 130, 115, 103, 96, 91, 73, 71, 61, 49, 45, 43, 41 and 14.3 Kd. In general, there were no significant differences in the positive rates among the AM, CCM and UCCM patients except for the pf135 Kd molecule which was more frequently reactive in UCCM patients than the AM and CCM patients. If immunological naiveness in term of protective immunity is the feature in CM patients, the immunoprecipitation test used is inadequate to demonstrate the fundamental differences in immune responses between CM and AM patients.