Concomitant Infection Decreases the Malaria Burden but Escalates Relapsing Fever Borreliosis

Lundqvist, Jenny,1975-Umeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Persson (author)

About 500 million cases of malaria occur annually. However, a substantial number of patients who actually have relapsing fever (RF) Borrelia can be misdiagnosed with malaria due to similar manifestations and geographic distribution of the two diseases. More alarmingly, high prevalence of concomitant infections with malaria and RF Borrelia has been reported. Therefore, we used a mouse model to study the effects of such mixed infection. We observed a 21-fold increase in spirochete titers, whereas the numbers of parasitized erythrocytes were reduced 15-fold. This may be explained by polarization of the host immune response towards the intracellular malaria parasite, resulting in unaffected extracellular spirochetes and hosts that succumb to sepsis. Mixed infection also resulted in severe malaria anemia with low hemoglobin levels, even though the parasite counts were low. Overall, co-infected animals had higher fatality rate and shorter time to death than both malaria and RF single infection. Furthermore, secondary malaria infection reactivated a quiescent RF brain infection, which is the first evidence of a clinically and biologically relevant cue for reactivation of RF Borrelia infection. Our study highlights the importance of investigating concomitant infections in vivo to elucidate the immune responses that are involved in the clinical outcome.

Larsson, Christer,1975-Umeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Bergström(Swepub:umu)chrlan97 (author)
Nelson, MariaUmeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Persson(Swepub:umu)maanen00 (author)
Andersson, Marie,1962-Umeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR),Bergström(Swepub:umu)mieaon01 (author)
Bergström, Sven,1950-Umeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR),Molekylär Infektionsmedicin, Sverige (MIMS),Umeå centrum för molekylär medicin (UCMM),Bergström(Swepub:umu)svbe0001 (author)
Persson, Cathrine,1960-Umeå universitet,Institutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten),Persson(Swepub:umu)cape0001 (author)
Umeå universitetInstitutionen för molekylärbiologi (Medicinska fakulteten) (creator_code:org_t)

In:Infection and Immunity: American Society for Microbiology78:5, s. 1924-19300019-95671098-5522

By the author/editor: Lundqvist, Jenny ...; Larsson, Christe ...; Nelson, Maria; Andersson, Marie ...; Bergström, Sven, ...; Persson, Cathrin ...

About the subject

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES: MEDICAL AND HEAL ...; and Basic Medicine; and Immunology in th ...

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES: MEDICAL AND HEAL ...; and Clinical Medicin ...; and Infectious Medic ...

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.