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The skin: where malaria infection and the host immune response begin

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Abstract

Infection by malaria parasites begins with the inoculation of sporozoites into the skin of the host. The early events following sporozoite deposition in the dermis are critical for both the establishment of malaria infection and for the induction of protective immune responses. The initial sporozoite inoculum is generally low, and only a small percentage of these sporozoites successfully reach the liver and grow to the next life cycle stage, making this a significant bottleneck for the parasite. Recent studies highlight the importance of sporozoite motility and host cell traversal in dermal exit. Importantly, protective immune responses against sporozoites and liver stages of Plasmodium are induced by dendritic cells in the lymph node draining the skin inoculation site. The cellular, molecular, and immunological events that occur in the skin and associated lymph nodes are the topic of this review.

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Acknowledgments

PS is supported by NIH R01 AI056840 and FZ by NIH R01 AI44375. The authors are grateful for the support of the Bloomberg Family Foundation. The authors declare no financial conflicts of interest.

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  1. Malaria Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Photini Sinnis & Fidel Zavala

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  1. Photini Sinnis
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  2. Fidel Zavala
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Correspondence to Photini Sinnis or Fidel Zavala.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue on Immunoparasitology - Guest Editor: Miguel Stadecker

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Sinnis, P., Zavala, F. The skin: where malaria infection and the host immune response begin. Semin Immunopathol 34, 787–792 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-012-0345-5

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