Endogenous Gamma Interferon is Protective Against Blood-Stage Plasmodium chabaudi.

2000 SEP 21 - (NewsRx.com) --

Endogenous gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) is necessary for the development of host protective immunity against blood-stage Plasmodium chabaudi malaria, researchers in Canada report.

"The role of endogenous IFN-gamma in protective immunity against blood-stage P. chabaudi AS malaria was studied using IFN-gamma gene knockout (GKO) and wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice," wrote Z. Su and colleagues, Montreal General Hospital. "Following infection with 10(6) parasitized erythrocytes, GKO mice developed significantly higher parasitemia during acute infection than WT mice and had severe mortality."

In infected GKO mice, the production …