Direct contact between Plasmodium falciparum and human B-cells in a novel co-culture increases parasite growth and affects B-cell growth
(2021) In Malaria Journal 20(1).- Abstract
Background: Plasmodium falciparum parasites cause malaria and co-exist in humans together with B-cells for long periods of time. Immunity is only achieved after repeated exposure. There has been a lack of methods to mimic the in vivo co-occurrence, where cells and parasites can be grown together for many days, and it has been difficult with long time in vitro studies. Methods and results: A new method for growing P. falciparum in 5% CO2 with a specially formulated culture medium is described. This knowledge was used to establish the co-culture of live P. falciparum together with human B-cells in vitro for 10 days. The presence of B-cells clearly enhanced parasite growth, but less so when Transwell inserts were used (not... (More)
Background: Plasmodium falciparum parasites cause malaria and co-exist in humans together with B-cells for long periods of time. Immunity is only achieved after repeated exposure. There has been a lack of methods to mimic the in vivo co-occurrence, where cells and parasites can be grown together for many days, and it has been difficult with long time in vitro studies. Methods and results: A new method for growing P. falciparum in 5% CO2 with a specially formulated culture medium is described. This knowledge was used to establish the co-culture of live P. falciparum together with human B-cells in vitro for 10 days. The presence of B-cells clearly enhanced parasite growth, but less so when Transwell inserts were used (not allowing passage of cells or merozoites), showing that direct contact is advantageous. B-cells also proliferated more in presence of parasites. Symbiotic parasitic growth was verified using CESS cell-line and it showed similar results, indicating that B-cells are indeed the cells responsible for the effect. In malaria endemic areas, people often have increased levels of atypical memory B-cells in the blood, and in this assay it was demonstrated that when parasites were present there was an increase in the proportion of CD19 + CD20 + CD27 − FCRL4 + B-cells, and a contraction of classical memory B-cells. This effect was most clearly seen when direct contact between B-cells and parasites was allowed. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that P. falciparum and B-cells undoubtedly can affect each other when allowed to multiply together, which is valuable information for future vaccine studies.
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- author
- Reddy, Sreenivasulu B. ; Nagy, Noemi ; Rönnberg, Caroline ; Chiodi, Francesca ; Lugaajju, Allan LU ; Heuts, Frank ; Szekely, Laszlo ; Wahlgren, Mats and Persson, Kristina E.M. LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-12-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- B-cell, Culture, Human, Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum
- in
- Malaria Journal
- volume
- 20
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 303
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:34225761
- scopus:85109126363
- ISSN
- 1475-2875
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12936-021-03831-x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c19f0e25-5737-485a-a0b6-8e770abea091
- date added to LUP
- 2021-08-12 11:10:47
- date last changed
- 2024-06-15 14:06:33
@article{c19f0e25-5737-485a-a0b6-8e770abea091,
abstract = {{<p>Background: Plasmodium falciparum parasites cause malaria and co-exist in humans together with B-cells for long periods of time. Immunity is only achieved after repeated exposure. There has been a lack of methods to mimic the in vivo co-occurrence, where cells and parasites can be grown together for many days, and it has been difficult with long time in vitro studies. Methods and results: A new method for growing P. falciparum in 5% CO<sub>2</sub> with a specially formulated culture medium is described. This knowledge was used to establish the co-culture of live P. falciparum together with human B-cells in vitro for 10 days. The presence of B-cells clearly enhanced parasite growth, but less so when Transwell inserts were used (not allowing passage of cells or merozoites), showing that direct contact is advantageous. B-cells also proliferated more in presence of parasites. Symbiotic parasitic growth was verified using CESS cell-line and it showed similar results, indicating that B-cells are indeed the cells responsible for the effect. In malaria endemic areas, people often have increased levels of atypical memory B-cells in the blood, and in this assay it was demonstrated that when parasites were present there was an increase in the proportion of CD19 + CD20 + CD27 − FCRL4 + B-cells, and a contraction of classical memory B-cells. This effect was most clearly seen when direct contact between B-cells and parasites was allowed. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that P. falciparum and B-cells undoubtedly can affect each other when allowed to multiply together, which is valuable information for future vaccine studies.</p>}},
author = {{Reddy, Sreenivasulu B. and Nagy, Noemi and Rönnberg, Caroline and Chiodi, Francesca and Lugaajju, Allan and Heuts, Frank and Szekely, Laszlo and Wahlgren, Mats and Persson, Kristina E.M.}},
issn = {{1475-2875}},
keywords = {{B-cell; Culture; Human; Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
series = {{Malaria Journal}},
title = {{Direct contact between Plasmodium falciparum and human B-cells in a novel co-culture increases parasite growth and affects B-cell growth}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03831-x}},
doi = {{10.1186/s12936-021-03831-x}},
volume = {{20}},
year = {{2021}},
}