Abstract
BackgroundThe Erythrocyte Binding Antigen (EBA) 175 has been considered as one of the most important Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) merozoite ligands that mediate invasion of the erythrocytes through their sialated receptor: Glycophorin A (GPA). The effect of the EBA 175 dimorphic alleles (F and C) on the severity of the disease is not yet fully understood. Therefore this study was designed to assess the distribution of the divergent dimorphic alleles of P. falciparum EBA-175 (F and C) in three different geographical areas in Sudan and the possible association of this dimorphism with the severity of the disease.MethodsA sum of 339 field isolates of P. falciparum obtained from patients in three different geographical areas in Sudan were screened for the dimorphic alleles (F, C) of the EBA-175 using nested PCR.ResultsThe percentage of F, C, and mixed F/C alleles were; 41%, 51%, and 8% respectively. F and C alleles showed significantly different distributions in the various geographic areas (p = 0.00). There was no significant association between malaria clinical manifestation and P. falciparum EBA-175 F and C alleles frequencies.ConclusionsThis study showed a significant differential distribution of F and C alleles in different geographical malaria endemic areas. No significant association was observed between F and C alleles and different malaria phenotypes.
Highlights
The Erythrocyte Binding Antigen (EBA) 175 has been considered as one of the most important Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) merozoite ligands that mediate invasion of the erythrocytes through their sialated receptor: Glycophorin A (GPA)
Some P. falciparum strains mainly use ligands that bind to sialated receptors of the erythrocyte, other strains use ligands that bind to receptors independently of sialic acid
In spite of the role of this dimorphism in host-parasite interaction is unclear, different studies have shown that the initial interaction of merozoite invasion involves binding of F or C segment to the GPA backbone after binding of region II “of EBA-175” to sialic acid residues of GPA [14,15]
Summary
The Erythrocyte Binding Antigen (EBA) 175 has been considered as one of the most important Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) merozoite ligands that mediate invasion of the erythrocytes through their sialated receptor: Glycophorin A (GPA). In the pathogenesis of the malaria parasite, P. falciparum merozoites invade the erythrocytes through multiple ligand-receptor interactions [1,2,3,4] providing an opportunity for using alternative invasion pathways if one has been blocked [5] This illustrates the vital importance of using multiple ligand-receptor interactions for the P. falciparum merozoites. F and C segments which are inserted at different positions in the coding sequence of exon 1 encode 141 and 114 amino-acid respectively These two divergent segments are conserved in all P. falciparum examined up to date and since merozoites are haploid; each parasite has a C or F segment, but not both or neither [14]. Another study among Ghanaian children showed that the C segment is not associated with severe malaria but confers a higher risk of fatal disease [18]
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