Genome wide analysis of inbred mouse lines identifies a locus containing Ppar-gamma as contributing to enhanced malaria survival

Pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment targets in cerebral malaria

Malaria, the most prevalent mosquito-borne infectious disease worldwide, has accompanied humanity for millennia and remains an important public health issue despite advances in its prevention and treatment. Most infections are asymptomatic, but a small percentage of individuals with a heavy parasite burden develop severe malaria, a group of clinical syndromes attributable to organ dysfunction. Cerebral malaria is an infrequent but life-threatening complication of severe malaria that presents as an acute cerebrovascular encephalopathy characterized by unarousable coma. Despite effective antiparasite drug treatment, 20% of patients with cerebral malaria die from this disease, and many survivors of cerebral malaria have neurocognitive impairment. Thus, an important unmet clinical need is to rapidly identify people with malaria who are at risk of developing cerebral malaria and to develop preventive, adjunctive and neuroprotective treatments for cerebral malaria. This Review describes important advances in the understanding of cerebral malaria over the past two decades and discusses how these mechanistic insights could be translated into new therapies.

Genetic mapping of determinants in drug resistance, virulence, disease susceptibility, and interaction of host-rodent malaria parasites

Genetic mapping has been widely employed to search for genes linked to phenotypes/traits of interest. Because of the ease of maintaining rodent malaria parasites in laboratory mice, many genetic crosses of rodent malaria parasites have been performed to map the parasite genes contributing to malaria parasite development, drug resistance, host immune response, and disease pathogenesis. Drs. Richard Carter, David Walliker, and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, UK, were the pioneers in developing the systems for genetic mapping of malaria parasite traits, including characterization of genetic markers to follow the inheritance and recombination of parasite chromosomes and performing the first genetic cross using rodent malaria parasites. Additionally, many genetic crosses of inbred mice have been performed to link mouse chromosomal loci to the susceptibility to malaria parasite infections. In this chapter, we review and discuss past and recent advances in genetic marker development, performing genetic crosses, and genetic mapping of both parasite and host genes. Genetic mappings using models of rodent malaria parasites and inbred mice have contributed greatly to our understanding of malaria, including parasite development within their hosts, mechanism of drug resistance, and host-parasite interaction.

Mouse Models for Unravelling Immunology of Blood Stage Malaria

Malaria comprises a spectrum of disease syndromes and the immune system is a major participant in malarial disease. This is particularly true in relation to the immune responses elicited against blood stages of Plasmodium-parasites that are responsible for the pathogenesis of infection. Mouse models of malaria are commonly used to dissect the immune mechanisms underlying disease. While no single mouse model of Plasmodium infection completely recapitulates all the features of malaria in humans, collectively the existing models are invaluable for defining the events that lead to the immunopathogenesis of malaria. Here we review the different mouse models of Plasmodium infection that are available, and highlight some of the main contributions these models have made with regards to identifying immune mechanisms of parasite control and the immunopathogenesis of malaria.

Linking functional and molecular mechanisms of host resilience to malaria infection

It remains challenging to understand why some hosts suffer severe illnesses, while others are unscathed by the same infection. We fitted a mathematical model to longitudinal measurements of parasite and red blood cell density in murine hosts from diverse genetic backgrounds to identify aspects of within-host interactions that explain variation in host resilience and survival during acute malaria infection. Among eight mouse strains that collectively span 90% of the common genetic diversity of laboratory mice, we found that high host mortality was associated with either weak parasite clearance, or a strong, yet imprecise response that inadvertently removes uninfected cells in excess. Subsequent cross-sectional cytokine assays revealed that the two distinct functional mechanisms of poor survival were underpinned by low expression of either pro- or anti-inflammatory cytokines, respectively. By combining mathematical modelling and molecular immunology assays, our study uncovered proximate mechanisms of diverse infection outcomes across multiple host strains and biological scales.

Effect of Brugia pahangi co-infection with Plasmodium berghei ANKA in gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Malaria and lymphatic filariasis (LF) are two leading and common mosquito-borne parasitic diseases worldwide. These two diseases are co-endemic in many tropical and sub-tropical regions and are known to share vectors. The interactions between malaria and filarial parasites are poorly understood. Thus, this study aimed at establishing the interactions that occur between Brugia pahangi and Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) co-infection in gerbils. Briefly, the gerbils were matched according to age, sex, and weight and grouped into filarial-only infection, PbA-only infection, co-infection, and control group. The parasitemia, survival and clinical assessment of the gerbils were monitored for a period of 30 days post Plasmodium infection. The immune responses of gerbils to both mono and co-infection were monitored. Findings show that co-infected gerbils have higher survival rate than PbA-infected gerbils. Food and water consumption were significantly reduced in both PbA-infected and co-infected gerbils, although loss of body weight, hypothermia, and anemia were less severe in co-infected gerbils. Plasmodium-infected gerbils also suffered hypoglycemia, which was not observed in co-infected gerbils. Furthermore, gerbil cytokine responses to co-infection were significantly higher than PbA-only-infected gerbils, which is being suggested as a factor for their increased longevity. Co-infected gerbils had significantly elicited interleukin-4, interferon-gamma, and tumor necrotic factor at early stage of infection than PbA-infected gerbils. Findings from this study suggest that B. pahangi infection protect against severe anemia and hypoglycemia, which are manifestations of PbA infection.

Overview of inactivating mutations in the protein-coding genome of the mouse reference strain C57BL/6J

Mice are extremely important as the premier model organism in human biomedical and mammalian genetic research. The genomes of several tens of mouse inbred strains have been sequenced. They have been compared to the genome of C57BL/6J, considered by convention as the reference genome. Based on a comparison of this reference genome with 36 other sequenced mouse strains, we generated an overview of all protein-coding genes that are deviant in this reference genome, compared with consensus protein-coding mouse gene sequences. We provide PROVEAN scores, reflecting the likelihood that these C57BL/6J proteins have lost function. We thus identified numerous abnormal proteins, and biological pathways, specifically present in C57BL/6J, suggesting the important caveats of this reference mouse strain, and linking candidate genes to some of the best-known phenotypes of this strain.

Host genetics in malaria: lessons from mouse studies

Malaria remains a deadly parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium, claiming almost half a million lives every year. While parasite genetics and biology are often the major targets in many studies, it is becoming more evident that host genetics plays a crucial role in the outcome of the infection. Similarly, Plasmodium infections in mice also rely heavily on the genetic background of the mice, and often correlate with observations in human studies, due to their high genetic homology with humans. As such, murine models of malaria are a useful tool for understanding host responses during Plasmodium infections, as well as dissecting host-parasite interactions through various genetic manipulation techniques. Reverse genetic approach such as quantitative trait loci studies and random mutagenesis screens have been employed to discover novel host genes that affect malaria susceptibility in mouse models, while other targeted studies utilize mouse models to validate observation from human studies. Herein, we review the findings from the past and present studies on murine models of hepatic and erythrocytic stages of malaria and speculate on how the current mouse models benefit from the recent development in CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology.

Pathogenesis of Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection in the gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as an experimental model for severe malaria

Background: As the quest to eradicate malaria continues, there remains a need to gain further understanding of the disease, particularly with regard to pathogenesis. This is facilitated, apart from in vitro and clinical studies, mainly via in vivo mouse model studies. However, there are few studies that have used gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) as animal models. Thus, this study is aimed at characterizing the effects of Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) infection in gerbils, as well as the underlying pathogenesis. Methods: Gerbils, 5-7 weeks old were infected by PbA via intraperitoneal injection of 1 × 10⁶ (0.2 mL) infected red blood cells. Parasitemia, weight gain/loss, hemoglobin concentration, red blood cell count and body temperature changes in both control and infected groups were monitored over a duration of 13 days. RNA was extracted from the brain, spleen and whole blood to assess the immune response to PbA infection. Organs including the brain, spleen, heart, liver, kidneys and lungs were removed aseptically for histopathology. Results: Gerbils were susceptible to PbA infection, showing significant decreases in the hemoglobin concentration, RBC counts, body weights and body temperature, over the course of the infection. There were no neurological signs observed. Both pro-inflammatory (IFNγ and TNF) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines were significantly elevated. Splenomegaly and hepatomegaly were also observed. PbA parasitized RBCs were observed in the organs, using routine light microscopy and in situ hybridization. Conclusion: Gerbils may serve as a good model for severe malaria to further understand its pathogenesis.

Mouse ENU Mutagenesis to Understand Immunity to Infection: Methods, Selected Examples, and Perspectives

Infectious diseases are responsible for over 25% of deaths globally, but many more individuals are exposed to deadly pathogens. The outcome of infection results from a set of diverse factors including pathogen virulence factors, the environment, and the genetic make-up of the host. The completion of the human reference genome sequence in 2004 along with technological advances have tremendously accelerated and renovated the tools to study the genetic etiology of infectious diseases in humans and its best characterized mammalian model, the mouse. Advancements in mouse genomic resources have accelerated genome-wide functional approaches, such as gene-driven and phenotype-driven mutagenesis, bringing to the fore the use of mouse models that reproduce accurately many aspects of the pathogenesis of human infectious diseases. Treatment with the mutagen N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) has become the most popular phenotype-driven approach. Our team and others have employed mouse ENU mutagenesis to identify host genes that directly impact susceptibility to pathogens of global significance. In this review, we first describe the strategies and tools used in mouse genetics to understand immunity to infection with special emphasis on chemical mutagenesis of the mouse germ-line together with current strategies to efficiently identify functional mutations using next generation sequencing. Then, we highlight illustrative examples of genes, proteins, and cellular signatures that have been revealed by ENU screens and have been shown to be involved in susceptibility or resistance to infectious diseases caused by parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

Pathway-GPS and SIGORA: identifying relevant pathways based on the over-representation of their gene-pair signatures

Motivation. Predominant pathway analysis approaches treat pathways as collections of individual genes and consider all pathway members as equally informative. As a result, at times spurious and misleading pathways are inappropriately identified as statistically significant, solely due to components that they share with the more relevant pathways.

Results. We introduce the concept of Pathway Gene-Pair Signatures (Pathway-GPS) as pairs of genes that, as a combination, are specific to a single pathway. We devised and implemented a novel approach to pathway analysis, Signature Over-representation Analysis (SIGORA), which focuses on the statistically significant enrichment of Pathway-GPS in a user-specified gene list of interest. In a comparative evaluation of several published datasets, SIGORA outperformed traditional methods by delivering biologically more plausible and relevant results.

Availability. An efficient implementation of SIGORA, as an R package with precompiled GPS data for several human and mouse pathway repositories is available for download from http://sigora.googlecode.com/svn/.

Identification of the Plasmodium berghei resistance locus 9 linked to survival on chromosome 9

Background

One of the main causes of mortality from severe malaria in Plasmodium falciparum infections is cerebral malaria (CM). An important host genetic component determines the susceptibility of an individual to develop CM or to clear the infection and become semi-immune. As such, the identification of genetic loci associated with susceptibility or resistance may serve to modulate disease severity.

Methodology

The Plasmodium berghei mouse model for experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) reproduces several disease symptoms seen in human CM, and two different phenotypes, a susceptible (FVB/NJ) and a resistant mouse strain (DBA/2J), were examined.

Results

FVB/NJ mice died from infection within ten days, whereas DBA/2J mice showed a gender bias: males survived on average nineteen days and females either died early with signs of ECM or survived for up to three weeks. A comparison of brain pathology between FVB/NJ and DBA/2J showed no major differences with regard to brain haemorrhages or the number of parasites and CD3+ cells in the microvasculature. However, significant differences were found in the peripheral blood of infected mice: For example resistant DBA/2J mice had significantly higher numbers of circulating basophils than did FVB/NJ mice on day seven. Analysis of the F2 offspring from a cross of DBA/2J and FVB/NJ mice mapped the genetic locus of the underlying survival trait to chromosome 9 with a Lod score of 4.9. This locus overlaps with two previously identified resistance loci (char1 and pymr) from a blood stage malaria model.

Conclusions

Survival best distinguishes malaria infections between FVB/NJ and DBA/2J mice. The importance of char1 and pymr on chromosome 9 in malaria resistance to P. berghei was confirmed. In addition there was an association of basophil numbers with survival.

In silico QTL mapping of maternal nurturing ability with the mouse diversity panel

Significant variation exists for maternal nurturing ability in inbred mice. Although classical mapping approaches have identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) that may account for this variation, the underlying genes are unknown. In this study, lactation performance data among the mouse diversity panel were used to map genomic regions associated with this variation. Females from each of 32 inbred strains (n = 8-19 dams/strain) were studied during the first 8 days of lactation by allowing them to raise weight- and size-normalized cross-foster litters (10 pups/litter). Average daily weight gain (ADG) of litters served as the primary indicator of milk production. The number of pups successfully reared to 8 days (PNUM8) also served as a related indicator of maternal performance. Initial haplotype association analysis using a Bonferroni-corrected, genome-wide threshold revealed 10 and 15 associations encompassing 11 and 13 genes for ADG and PNUM8, respectively. The most significant of these associated haplotype blocks were found on MMU 8, 11, and 19 and contained the genes Nr3c2, Egfr, Sec61g, and Gnaq. Lastly, two haplotype blocks on MMU9 were detected in association with PNUM8. These overlapped with the previously described maternal performance QTL, Neogq1. These results suggest that the application of in silico QTL mapping is a useful tool in discovering the presence of novel candidate genes involved in determining lactation capacity in mice.

Haplotype Association Mapping Identifies a Candidate Gene Region in Mice Infected With Staphylococcus aureus

Exposure to Staphylococcus aureus has a variety of outcomes, from asymptomatic colonization to fatal infection. Strong evidence suggests that host genetics play an important role in susceptibility, but the specific host genetic factors involved are not known. The availability of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data for inbred Mus musculus strains means that haplotype association mapping can be used to identify candidate susceptibility genes. We applied haplotype association mapping to Perlegen SNP data and kidney bacterial counts from Staphylococcus aureus-infected mice from 13 inbred strains and detected an associated block on chromosome 7. Strong experimental evidence supports the result: a separate study demonstrated the presence of a susceptibility locus on chromosome 7 using consomic mice. The associated block contains no genes, but lies within the gene cluster of the 26-member extended kallikrein gene family, whose members have well-recognized roles in the generation of antimicrobial peptides and the regulation of inflammation. Efficient mixed-model association (EMMA) testing of all SNPs with two alleles and located within the gene cluster boundaries finds two significant associations: one of the three polymorphisms defining the associated block and one in the gene closest to the block, Klk1b11. In addition, we find that 7 of the 26 kallikrein genes are differentially expressed between susceptible and resistant mice, including the Klk1b11 gene. These genes represent a promising set of candidate genes influencing susceptibility to Staphylococcus aureus.

Forward genetic approaches to understanding complex behaviors

Assigning function to genes has long been a focus of biomedical research.Even with complete knowledge of the genomic sequences of humans, mice and other experimental organisms, there is still much to be learned about gene function and control. Ablation or overexpression of single genes using knockout or transgenic technologies has provided functional annotation for many genes, but these technologies do not capture the extensive genetic variation present in existing experimental mouse populations. Researchers have only recently begun to truly appreciate naturally occurring genetic variation resulting from single nucleotide substitutions,insertions, deletions, copy number variation, epigenetic changes (DNA methylation,histone modifications, etc.) and gene expression differences and how this variation contributes to complex phenotypes. In this chapter, we will discuss the benefits and limitations of different forward genetic approaches that capture the genetic variation present in inbred mouse strains and present the utility of these approaches for mapping QTL that influence complex behavioral phenotypes.

Genetic control of murine invariant natural killer T-cell development dynamically differs dependent on the examined tissue type

Previous studies using gene-targeted mutant mice revealed several molecules important for the development or function of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells. However, these gene knockout mice represent cases that are rare in humans. Thus, it remains unclear how naturally occurring allelic variants of these genes or others regulate the numerical and functional diversity of iNKT cells in both mice and humans. Studies in humans are mostly limited to iNKT cells in peripheral blood (PB). It is not known if the relative distribution of iNKT cells between PB and other lymphoid organs is correlated or under common genetic control. To initially address these questions, we analyzed iNKT cells in the spleen, thymus and PB of 38 inbred mouse strains. Percentages of iNKT cells in these three anatomical sites varied significantly in a strain-dependent manner. The correlation between PB and spleen was moderate, and none was observed between PB and thymus. Similarly, proportions of the CD4-expressing subset of iNKT cells differed significantly among inbred strains. The percentages of CD4-positive iNKT cells displayed a strong correlation between PB and spleen, although it remained poor between PB and thymus. Genome-wide association studies across strains identified only partially overlapping loci associated with variability of iNKT cell frequencies within and between differing anatomical sites.

The Case for the Use of PPARγ Agonists as an Adjunctive Therapy for Cerebral Malaria

Cerebral malaria is a severe complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection associated with high mortality even when highly effective antiparasitic therapy is used. Adjunctive therapies that modify the pathophysiological processes caused by malaria are a possible way to improve outcome. This review focuses on the utility of PPARγ agonists as an adjunctive therapy for the treatment of cerebral malaria. The current knowledge of PPARγ agonist use in malaria is summarized. Findings from experimental CNS injury and disease models that demonstrate the potential for PPARγ agonists as an adjunctive therapy for cerebral malaria are also discussed.

The plant-based immunomodulator curcumin as a potential candidate for the development of an adjunctive therapy for cerebral malaria

The clinical manifestations of cerebral malaria (CM) are well correlated with underlying major pathophysiological events occurring during an acute malaria infection, the most important of which, is the adherence of parasitized erythrocytes to endothelial cells ultimately leading to sequestration and obstruction of brain capillaries. The consequent reduction in blood flow, leads to cerebral hypoxia, localized inflammation and release of neurotoxic molecules and inflammatory cytokines by the endothelium. The pharmacological regulation of these immunopathological processes by immunomodulatory molecules may potentially benefit the management of this severe complication. Adjunctive therapy of CM patients with an appropriate immunomodulatory compound possessing even moderate anti-malarial activity with the capacity to down regulate excess production of proinflammatory cytokines and expression of adhesion molecules, could potentially reverse cytoadherence, improve survival and prevent neurological sequelae. Current major drug discovery programmes are mainly focused on novel parasite targets and mechanisms of action. However, the discovery of compounds targeting the host remains a largely unexplored but attractive area of drug discovery research for the treatment of CM. This review discusses the properties of the plant immune-modifier curcumin and its potential as an adjunctive therapy for the management of this complication.