The Impact of Malaria Parasites on Dendritic Cell-T Cell Interaction.

Malaria is caused by apicomplexan parasites of the genus Plasmodium. While infection continues to pose a risk for the majority of the global population, the burden of disease mainly resides in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although immunity develops against disease, this requires years of persistent exposure and is not associated with protection against infection. Repeat infections occur due to the parasite's ability to disrupt or evade the host immune responses. However, despite many years of study, the mechanisms of this disruption remain unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated a parasite-induced failure in dendritic cell (DCs) function affecting the generation of helper T cell responses. These T cells fail to help B cell responses, reducing the production of antibodies that are necessary to control malaria infection. This review focuses on our current understanding of the effect of Plasmodium parasite on DC function, DC-T cell interaction, and T cell activation. A better understanding of how parasites disrupt DC-T cell interactions will lead to new targets and approaches to reinstate adaptive immune responses and enhance parasite immunity.

Developing a xenograft model of human vasculature in the mouse ear pinna.

Humanised xenograft models allow for the analysis of human tissue within a physiological environment in vivo. However, current models often rely on the angiogenesis and ingrowth of recipient vasculature to perfuse tissues, preventing analysis of biological processes and diseases involving human blood vessels. This limits the effectiveness of xenografts in replicating human physiology and may lead to issues with translating findings into human research. We have designed a xenograft model of human vasculature to address this issue. Human subcutaneous fat was cultured in vitro to promote blood vessel outgrowth prior to implantation into immunocompromised mice. We demonstrate that implants survived, retained human vasculature and anastomosed with the circulatory system of the recipient mouse. Significantly, by performing transplants into the ear pinna, this system enabled intravital observation of xenografts by multiphoton microscopy, allowing us to visualise the steps leading to vascular cytoadherence of erythrocytes infected with the human parasite Plasmodium falciparum. This model represents a useful tool for imaging the interactions that occur within human tissues in vivo and permits visualization of blood flow and cellular recruitment in a system which is amenable to intervention for various studies in basic biology together with drug evaluation and mechanism of action studies.