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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2001, p. 1289-1291, Vol. 8, No. 6
Centre for Medical Parasitology at Department
of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital
(Rigshospitalet), and Institute for Medical Microbiology and
Immunology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen,
Denmark1; London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, London, United
Kingdom2; and National Institute of
Medical Research, Amani Medical Research Centre, Amani,
Tanzania3
Received 14 January 2001/Returned for modification 5 April
2001/Accepted 21 August 2001
The use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITN) has been documented
to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality in areas with endemic
malaria, but concerns have been raised that ITN usage could affect the
acquisition of malaria immunity. Several lines of evidence have
indicated that antibodies against variant surface antigens (VSA) are
important in the development of naturally acquired immunity to
Plasmodium falciparum malaria and may thus be good indicators of immune status. We have compared the levels of VSA antibodies in plasma from children who have used ITN for 4 years to
levels in plasma from children from a nearby village not using ITN. A
total of 97 plasma samples were analyzed using 13 different P. falciparum isolates. We found that the children using ITN had significantly lower VSA antibody levels and recognized a smaller proportion of the VSA expressed by the tested parasite isolates than
children not using ITN.
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.6.1289-1291.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets Reduce Plasma Antibody Levels and
Limit the Repertoire of Antibodies to Plasmodium falciparum
Variant Surface Antigens
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of
Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Copenhagen, Panum
Institute Building 24.2, Blegdamsvej 3, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
Phone: 45 35 32 76 77. Fax: 45 35 32 78 51. E-mail:
theander{at}biobase.dk.
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