Skip to main content
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
    • Applied and Environmental Microbiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems
  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Latest Articles
    • COVID-19 Special Collection
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
  • Topics
    • Applied and Environmental Science
    • Clinical Science and Epidemiology
    • Ecological and Evolutionary Science
    • Host-Microbe Biology
    • Molecular Biology and Physiology
    • Therapeutics and Prevention
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About mBio
    • Editor in Chief
    • Board of Editors
    • AAM Fellows
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
    • Applied and Environmental Microbiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems

User menu

  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
mBio
publisher-logosite-logo

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Latest Articles
    • COVID-19 Special Collection
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
  • Topics
    • Applied and Environmental Science
    • Clinical Science and Epidemiology
    • Ecological and Evolutionary Science
    • Host-Microbe Biology
    • Molecular Biology and Physiology
    • Therapeutics and Prevention
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About mBio
    • Editor in Chief
    • Board of Editors
    • AAM Fellows
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
Letter to the Editor | Host-Microbe Biology

Further Mechanisms and Locations in Which Antisporozoite Antibodies Neutralize Malaria Sporozoites

Jerome P. Vanderberg
Carole A. Long, Invited Editor, Patricia J. Johnson, Editor
Jerome P. Vanderberg
aNew York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
Roles: (Retired)
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Carole A. Long
NIAID/NIH
Roles: Invited Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Patricia J. Johnson
University of California Los Angeles
Roles: Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01588-19
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

LETTER

Having worked in this area for many years, I read with much interest the recent article “Antibody-Mediated Protection against Plasmodium Sporozoites Begins at the Dermal Inoculation Site” by Flores-Garcia et al. (1). It is now universally recognized, as described by the authors, that mosquitoes inject most of their sporozoites into extravascular skin tissue rather than directly into blood vessels (2, 3). From there, they migrate through the dermis to enter blood vessels (3) and are carried to the liver, where they invade hepatocytes to continue their development. The authors further note that sporozoites spend much of their extracellular time at the skin inoculation site, thus rendering them vulnerable to antibody-mediated destruction at this site. Such antibody-mediated immobilization or destruction of sporozoites has been shown both in vitro and in vivo (3–5). I am gratified that the authors have corroborated these prior findings made by us and several other authors and have expanded them with new data.

The authors concluded that antibodies targeting the migratory sporozoites exert a large proportion of their protective effect at the inoculation site but that the mechanisms by and location in which they neutralize parasites have not been fully elucidated (1). I would like, however, to call attention to the evidence we presented in our 2009 publication (5) in which we elucidated an entirely new and complementary way in which sporozoites can be neutralized by host antibodies.

It is known that living sporozoites release large quantities of soluble circumsporozoite protein (CSP) into their environment both in vitro and in vivo and that soluble CSP is found within the saliva of malaria-infected mosquitoes (6, 7). Thus, infected mosquitoes introduce into the skin of immunized hosts not only CSP-covered sporozoites but also soluble CSP, both of which encounter and interact with homologous anti-CSP antibodies in situ within avascular tissue of the host dermis. We presented evidence that many of the sporozoites are trapped there within apparent immune complexes, as determined by confocal microscopy and specific staining with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated protein A and A/C. Thus, sporozoites were not only immobilized by CS antibodies as has previously been shown but were additionally entrapped by being encased within these immune complexes. I respectfully suggest, in disagreement with the conclusions of the authors (1), that the mechanisms by and location in which antisporozoite antibodies neutralize parasites have indeed been further elucidated, as demonstrated in our 2009 paper (5).

FOOTNOTES

    • Published 10 September 2019
  • For the author reply, see https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02108-19.

  • Copyright © 2019 Vanderberg.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

REFERENCES

  1. 1.↵
    1. Flores-Garcia Y,
    2. Nasir G,
    3. Hopp CS,
    4. Munoz C,
    5. Balaban AE,
    6. Zavala F,
    7. Sinnis P
    2018. Antibody-mediated protection against Plasmodium sporozoites begins at the dermal inoculation site. mBio 9:e02194-18. doi:10.1128/mBio.02194-18.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  2. 2.↵
    1. Sidjanski S,
    2. Vanderberg JP
    . 1997. Delayed migration of Plasmodium sporozoites from the mosquito bite site to the blood. Am J Trop Med Hyg 57:426–429. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.1997.57.426.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  3. 3.↵
    1. Vanderberg JP,
    2. Frevert U
    . 2004. Intravital microscopy demonstrating antibody-mediated immobilisation of Plasmodium berghei sporozoites injected into skin by mosquitoes. Int J Parasitol 34:991–996. doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2004.05.005.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  4. 4.↵
    1. Stewart MJ,
    2. Nawrot R,
    3. Schulman S,
    4. Vanderberg JP
    . 1986. Plasmodium berghei sporozoite invasion is blocked in vitro by sporozoite-immobilizing antibodies. Infect Immun 51:859–864.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  5. 5.↵
    1. Kebaier C,
    2. Voza T,
    3. Vanderberg JP
    . 2009. Kinetics of mosquito-injected Plasmodium sporozoites in mice: fewer sporozoites are injected into sporozoite-immunized mice. PLoS Pathog 5:e1000399. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000399.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  6. 6.↵
    1. Stewart MJ,
    2. Vanderberg JP
    . 1991. Malaria sporozoites release circumsporozoite protein from their apical end and translocate it along their surface. J Protozool 38:411–421. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.1991.tb01379.x.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  7. 7.↵
    1. Beier JC,
    2. Vaughan JA,
    3. Madani A,
    4. Noden BH
    . 1992. Plasmodium falciparum: release of circumsporozoite protein by sporozoites in the mosquito vector. Exp Parasitol 75:248–256. doi:10.1016/0014-4894(92)90185-D.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
View Abstract
PreviousNext
Back to top
Download PDF
Citation Tools
Further Mechanisms and Locations in Which Antisporozoite Antibodies Neutralize Malaria Sporozoites
Jerome P. Vanderberg
mBio Sep 2019, 10 (5) e01588-19; DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01588-19

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Print

Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email

Thank you for sharing this mBio article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Further Mechanisms and Locations in Which Antisporozoite Antibodies Neutralize Malaria Sporozoites
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from mBio
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in mBio.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Further Mechanisms and Locations in Which Antisporozoite Antibodies Neutralize Malaria Sporozoites
Jerome P. Vanderberg
mBio Sep 2019, 10 (5) e01588-19; DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01588-19
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Top
  • Article
    • LETTER
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

KEYWORDS

antibodies
malaria
preerythrocytic
skin
sporozoites
vaccine
immune complexes
antisporozoite antibodies
circumsporozoite protein
immune complexes
Plasmodium
sporozoite

Related Articles

Cited By...

About

  • About mBio
  • Editor in Chief
  • Board of Editors
  • AAM Fellows
  • Policies
  • For Reviewers
  • For the Media
  • For Librarians
  • For Advertisers
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • FAQ
  • Permissions
  • Journal Announcements

Authors

  • ASM Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Author Warranty
  • Article Types
  • Ethics
  • Contact Us

Follow #mBio

@ASMicrobiology

       

ASM Journals

ASM journals are the most prominent publications in the field, delivering up-to-date and authoritative coverage of both basic and clinical microbiology.

About ASM | Contact Us | Press Room

 

ASM is a member of

Scientific Society Publisher Alliance

 

American Society for Microbiology
1752 N St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 737-3600

Copyright © 2021 American Society for Microbiology | Privacy Policy | Website feedback

Online ISSN: 2150-7511