Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T10:14:56.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Acquired immunity to Plasmodium vinckei in mice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

F. E. G. Cox
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of London King'sCollege, Strand, London W.C. 2

Extract

Plasmodium vinckei infections, which usually kill mice within 7 days, can be terminated in the majority of cases by a single injection of chloroquine phosphate equivalent to 10 mg/100 g body weight. After such drug treatment the parasites disappear from the blood for 6–11 days, after which a recrudescence with a low peak occurs. Most animals overcome this second parasitaemia and the parasites finally disappear completely. After recovery, mice exhibit an immune response to a challenge infection and, after a short period of parasitaemia during which a low peak is reached, the animals recover completely. This immunity, once acquired, apparently persists for the lifetime of the host. The establishment of the immune state depends on the period of patent parasitaemia during the primary infection and the longer this period the greater is the chance of a solid immunity developing. Immunity may be exhibited by mice treated with chloroquine as early as the 3rd day of infection. Killed parasites have no immunizing effect. Mice splenectomized before infection are capable of an immune response, and mice splenectomized after radical cure are also able to overcome a challenge infection. In both these cases more than one injection of chloroquine is required. The immunity produced in mice is that of the true sterile type, equivalent to that produced against P. berghei in rats, and is species-specific, conferring no resistance to infection with P. berghei. P. vinckei infections in mice provide a useful immunological model for laboratory studies. The immune response is predictable and easy to induce, and this parasite is therefore superior to P. berghei for immunological studies. Attention is drawn to the fact that in P. vinckei the infection is brought under control by the immune response and not by the antimalarial drug; therefore this ought to be taken into consideration in the assessment of drug trials.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Al-Dabagh, M. A. (1960). The effects of splenectomy on Plasmodium juxtanucleare infections in chicks. Trans. R. Soc. trop. Med. Hyg. 54, 400–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Box, E. D. & Ginrich, W. D. (1958). Acquired immunity to Plasmodium berghei in the white mouse. J. infect. Dis. 103, 291300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bray, R. S. (1960). Studies on malaria in chimpanzees. VIII. The experimental transmission and pre-erythrocytic phase of Plasmodium malariae, with a note on the host range of the parasite. Am. J. trop. Med. Hyg. 9, 455–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coggeshall, L. T. & Kumm, H. W. (1937). Demonstration of passive immunity in experimental monkey malaria. J. exp. Med. 66, 177–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, S. & Mcgregor, I. A. (1963). Gamma globulin and acquired immunity to malaria. In Immunity to Protozoa (ed. Garnham, P. C. C., Pierce, A. E. and Roitt, I.), pp. 123–59. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Corradetti, A. (1963). Acquired sterile immunity in experimental protozoal infections. In Immunity to Protozoa (ed. Garnham, P. C. C., Pierce, A. E. and Roitt, I.), pp. 6977. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cox, F. E. G. (1962). Volutin–like granules in a malaria parasite. Trans. R. Soc. trop. Med. Hyg. 56, 13.Google Scholar
Cox, F. E. G. (1964). Studies on the host–parasite relationships of the Haemosporidia. Ph.D. thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Cox, F. E. G., Bilbey, D. L. J. & Nicol, T. (1964). Reticulo-endothelial activity in mice infected with Plasmodium vinckei. J. Protozool. 11, 229–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, H. W. (1957). Observations on induced chronic Plasmodium berghei infections in white mice. J. Immun. 79, 450–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, H. W. (1958). The roles of time and atabrine in inducing chronic Plasmodium berghei infections in white mice. J. Immun. 81, 72–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, H. W. (1959). A study of relapse Plasmodium berghei infections isolated from white mice. J. Immun. 82, 209–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, H. W. (1962). The behaviour of Plasmodium berghei strains isolated from relapsed infections of white mice. J. Protozool. 9, 114–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, H. W. (1964). Measurements of the acquired resistance of rats and mice to Plasmodium berghei infections. J. Parasit. 50, 23–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galliard, H. & Lapierre, J. (1950). Effets de la splénectomie sur l'évolution et les rechutes de l'infection à Plasmodium berghei Vincke et Lips chez le rat blanc. C.r. Séanc. Soc. Biol. 144, 402–3.Google Scholar
Galliard, H. & Lapierre, J. (1951). Infection à Plasmodium berghei chez le rat blanc. Bull. Soc. Path. exot. 44, 185–94.Google Scholar
Garnham, P. C. C. (1963). An introduction to protozoal immunity. In Immunity to Protozoa (ed. Garnham, P. C. C., Pierce, A. E. and Roitt, I.), pp. 321. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hill, J. (1963). Chemotherapy of malaria. 2. The antimalarial drugs. In Experimental Chemotherapy (ed. Hawking, F. and Schnitzer, R. J.), vol. 3, pp. 513601. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerusalem, C. (1965). Active immunisation in experimental malaria infection (Plasmodium berghei). Abstract. In Progress in Protozoology, pp. 182–3. (Second Int. Conf. Protozool., Excerpta Med. Internat. Cong. Ser. no. 91.).Google Scholar
Lapierre, J. (1954). Plasmodium berghei chez la souris. Apparition d'un état d'immunité a la suite de traitemant répétés par la Nivaquine au cours des rechutes. Bull. Soc. Path. exot. 47, 380–7.Google Scholar
McGregor, I. A. (1964). The passive transfer of human malarial immunity. Am. J. trop. Med. Hyg. 13, 237–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, W. (1965). Competitive relationship between Eperythrozoon coccoides and Plasmodium berghei in the mouse. Expl Parasit. 16, 158–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodhain, J. (1954). Essai d'adaptation du Plasmodium vinckei au rat blanc. Annls Soc. beige. Méd. trop. 34, 217–28.Google Scholar
Satya, Prabash (1960). Studies on Plasmodium berghei Vincke and Lips 1948. XXVII. Duration of patent primary parasitaemia necessary for the development of measurable acquired immunity, if any, in albino mice. Indian J. Malar. 14, 165–70.Google Scholar
Schindler, R. & Mehlitz, D. (1965). Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung komplement-bindender Antikörper für die Plasmodium berghei-Infektion der Maus. Z. Tropenmed. Parasit. 16, 3049.Google Scholar
Sergent, E. (1963). Latent infection and premunition. Some definitions of microbiology and immunology. In Immunity to Protozoa (ed. Garnham, P. C. C., Pierce, A. E. and Roitt, I.), pp. 3947. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sergent, E. & Sergent, E. (1956). History of the concept of ‘relative immunity’ or ‘premunition’ correlated to latent infection. Indian J. Malar. 10, 5380.Google ScholarPubMed
Singer, I. (1954). The course of infection with Plasmodium berghei in inbred CFI mice. J. infect Dis. 94, 237–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobie, J. E. (1964). Detection of malaria antibodies–Immunodiagnosis. Am. J. trop. Med. Hyg. 13, 195203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, M. L. (1965). Development and duration of immunity to malaria (Plasmodium berghei) in mice.Abstract. In Progress in Protozoology, p. 168. (Second. Int. Con. Protozool. Excerpta Med. Internat. Cong. Ser. no. 91.)Google Scholar
Weiss, M. L. & DeGiusti, D. L. (1964). Modification of a malaria parasite (Plasmodium berghei) following passage through tissue culture. Nature, Lond. 201, 731–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed