Malaria causes many changes in human metabolism, although the extent to which these changes underpin pathology and the host immune response remains poorly understood. In this issue of Nature Metabolism, Abdrabou et al. show that malaria is associated with elevated levels of circulating steroids in susceptible children and propose that these immunosuppressive lipids exacerbate disease.
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Acknowledgements
M.J.M. is supported as an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow. C.R.E. is supported as an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow.
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McConville, M.J., Engwerda, C.R. Malaria thriving on steroids. Nat Metab 3, 892–893 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00416-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00416-5
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