Gilbert S C, Plebanski M, Gupta S, Morris J, Cox M, Aidoo M, Kwiatkowski D, Greenwood B M, Whittle H C, Hill A V
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
Science. 1998 Feb 20;279(5354):1173-7. doi: 10.1126/science.279.5354.1173.
Host-parasite coevolution has been likened to a molecular arms race, with particular parasite genes evolving to evade specific host defenses. Study of the variants of an antigenic epitope of Plasmodium falciparum that induces a cytotoxic T cell response supports this view. In African children with malaria, the variants present are influenced by the presence of a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type that restricts the immune response to this epitope. The distribution of parasite variants may be further influenced by the ability of cohabiting parasite strains to facilitate each other's survival by down-regulating cellular immune responses, using altered peptide ligand antagonism.
宿主-寄生虫的共同进化被比作一场分子军备竞赛，特定的寄生虫基因不断进化以逃避宿主的特定防御机制。对恶性疟原虫一种诱导细胞毒性T细胞反应的抗原表位变体的研究支持了这一观点。在患有疟疾的非洲儿童中，所存在的变体受到一种人类白细胞抗原（HLA）类型的影响，这种抗原类型限制了对该表位的免疫反应。同居寄生虫菌株通过改变肽配体拮抗作用下调细胞免疫反应来促进彼此生存的能力，可能会进一步影响寄生虫变体的分布。
