Transcriptional profiling of hepatocytes infected with the replicative form of the malaria parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi

Abstract Background The zoonotic simian parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi develops into replicating schizonts and dormant hypnozoites during the infection of hepatocytes and is used as a model organism to study relapsing malaria. The transcriptional profiling of P. cynomolgi liver stages was previously...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Malaria Journal
Main Authors: Gabriel Mitchell, Guglielmo Roma, Annemarie Voorberg-van der Wel, Martin Beibel, Anne-Marie Zeeman, Sven Schuierer, Laura Torres, Erika L. Flannery, Clemens H. M. Kocken, Sebastian A. Mikolajczak, Thierry T. Diagana
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BMC 2022
Subjects:
Host response
Relapsing malaria
Schizonts
Hypnozoites
RNA sequencing
Liver cells
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Infectious and parasitic diseases
RC109-216
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04411-3
https://doaj.org/article/0e680a8fe8ac407888ecdc3feea9dfd8
Description
Summary:Abstract Background The zoonotic simian parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi develops into replicating schizonts and dormant hypnozoites during the infection of hepatocytes and is used as a model organism to study relapsing malaria. The transcriptional profiling of P. cynomolgi liver stages was previously reported and revealed many important biological features of the parasite but left out the host response to malaria infection. Methods Previously published RNA sequencing data were used to quantify the expression of host genes in rhesus macaque hepatocytes infected with P . cynomolgi in comparison to either cells from uninfected samples or uninfected bystander cells. Results Although the dataset could not be used to resolve the transcriptional profile of hypnozoite-infected hepatocytes, it provided a snapshot of the host response to liver stage schizonts at 9–10 day post-infection and identified specific host pathways that are modulated during the exo-erythrocytic stage of P. cynomolgi. Conclusions This study constitutes a valuable resource characterizing the hepatocyte response to P. cynomolgi infection and provides a framework to build on future research that aims at understanding hepatocyte-parasite interactions during relapsing malaria infection.

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