Abstract
Conventional indirect haemagglutination test was performed in rhesus monkey sera (collected from Plasmodium knowlesi infected animals) with and without prior treatment of sera with 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME). Surprisingly, many sera samples showed significant enhancement of final titre with 2-ME. The 2-ME enhancement effect was more pronounced in the sera of hyperimmune monkeys on further injection of antigen or parasites. It was also noticeable in the sera during primary drug-suppressed P. knowlesi infection and appeared to have a bearing on the immune status of the animals to rechallenge. The use of a soluble antigen prepared from P. knowlesi infected erythrocytes was found to be essential in IHA test to demonstrate the 2-ME enhancement effect. Antigen prepared from freed parasites (commonly used) failed to show a similar effect in IHA. The possible role of certain T-lymphocyte products — antigen binding, non-agglutinating, 2-ME sensitive molecules — in malarial immunology has been proposed.
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