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Immunological consequences of intermittent preventive treatment against malaria in Senegalese preschool children
BACKGROUND: Intermittent preventive treatment in children (IPTc) is a promising strategy to control malaria morbidity. A significant concern is whether IPTc increases children's susceptibility to subsequent malaria infection by altering their anti-Plasmodium acquired immunity. METHODS: To inves...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2010
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3012051/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21167018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-363 |
Sumario: | BACKGROUND: Intermittent preventive treatment in children (IPTc) is a promising strategy to control malaria morbidity. A significant concern is whether IPTc increases children's susceptibility to subsequent malaria infection by altering their anti-Plasmodium acquired immunity. METHODS: To investigate this concern, IgG antibody (Ab) responses to Plasmodium falciparum schizont extract were measured in Senegalese children (6 months-5 years old) who had received three rounds of IPTc with artesunate + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (or placebo) at monthly intervals eight months earlier. Potential confounding factors, such as asexual malaria parasitaemia and nutritional status were also evaluated. RESULTS: Firstly, a bivariate analysis showed that children who had received IPTc had lower anti-Plasmodium IgG Ab levels than the non-treated controls. When epidemiological parameters were incorporated into a multivariate regression, gender, nutritional status and haemoglobin concentration did not have any significant influence. In contrast, parasitaemia, past malaria morbidity and increasing age were strongly associated with a higher specific IgG response. CONCLUSIONS: The intensity of the contacts with P. falciparum seems to represent the main factor influencing anti-schizont IgG responses. Previous IPTc does not seem to interfere with this parasite-dependent acquired humoral response eight months after the last drug administration. |
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