Abstract
Naturally acquired protective immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria is mainly antibody-mediated. However, other cells of the innate and adaptive immune system also play important roles. These include so-called unconventional T cells, which express a γδ T-cell receptor (TCR) rather than the αβ TCR expressed by the majority of T cells—the conventional T cells. The γδ T-cell compartment can be divided into distinct subsets. One expresses a TCR involving Vγ9 and Vδ2, while another major subset uses instead a TCR composed of Vδ1 paired with one of several types of γ chains. The former of these subsets uses a largely semi-invariant TCR repertoire and responds in an innate-like fashion to pyrophosphate antigens generated by various stressed host cells and infectious pathogens, including P. falciparum. In this short review, we focus instead on the Vδ1 subset, which appears to have a more adaptive immunobiology, but which has been much less studied in general and in malaria in particular. We discuss the evidence that Vδ1+ cells do indeed play a role in malaria and speculate on the function and specificity of this cell type, which is increasingly attracting the attention of immunologists.
Highlights
The most serious form of malaria is caused by the hemoprotozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum
There is certainly evidence that Vδ1+ T cells play a distinct role from αβ T cells in the immune response to several infections— including P. falciparum malaria
It was reported shortly after that in semi-immune African children and adults with acute P. falciparum malaria, the γδ T cells responding in vivo are completely dominated by cells expressing Vδ1, with little contribution from Vγ9+Vδ2+ T cells [31, 32]
Summary
The most serious form of malaria is caused by the hemoprotozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The TCR repertoire of this γδ T-cell subset becomes increasingly focused over time as a result of selective expansion of specific clonotypes, most likely following antigenic stimulation
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