Summary

Plasmodium falciparum malaria drives immunoregulatory responses across multiple cell subsets, which protects from immunopathogenesis, but also hampers the development of effective anti-parasitic immunity. Understanding malaria induced tolerogenic responses in specific cell subsets may inform development of strategies to boost protective immunity during drug treatment and vaccination. Here, we analyse the immune landscape with single cell RNA sequencing during P. falciparum malaria. We identify cell type specific responses in sub-clustered major immune cell types. Malaria is associated with an increase in immunosuppressive monocytes, alongside NK and γδ T cells which up-regulate tolerogenic markers. IL-10-producing Tr1 CD4 T cells and IL-10-producing regulatory B cells are also induced. Type I interferon responses are identified across all cell types, suggesting Type I interferon signalling may be linked to induction of immunoregulatory networks during malaria. These findings provide insights into cell-specific and shared immunoregulatory changes during malaria and provide a data resource for further analysis.

Overall design

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 6 individuals (age 6-24) with P. falciparum infection and 2 healthy adult endemic controls (ages 20 and 27) were collected before drug treatment (day 0) and at 7 and 28 days after treatment. PBMCs were isolated by Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) according to the presence or absence of XX signal, and analysed using droplet-based scRNAseq.”

Contributors

To be supplemented.

Contact

To be supplemented.