ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2003
Top-down or bottom-up regulation of intra-host blood-stage malaria: do malaria parasites most resemble the dynamics of prey or predator?
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Combining in vivo and in vitro approaches to better understand host-pathogen nutritional interactions.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- UndetectedMalariaWorld journal · 2025Article
- Non-random distribution of Plasmodium Species infections and associated clinical features in children in the lake Victoria region, Kenya, 2012-2018.Tropical medicine and health · 2024Article
- Article
- Differential drivers of intraspecific and interspecific competition during malaria-helminth co-infection.Parasitology · 2021Article
- Uncovering drivers of dose-dependence and individual variation in malaria infection outcomes.PLoS computational biology · 2020Article
- Plasticity and genetic variation in traits underpinning asexual replication of the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi.Malaria journal · 2019Article
- What Controls the Acute Viral Infection Following Yellow Fever Vaccination?Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2018Article
- Phenotypic plasticity in reproductive effort: malaria parasites respond to resource availability.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasitesProceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Facilitation through altered resource availability in a mixed-species rodent malaria infection.Ecology letters · 2016Article
- Opportunities and challenges of Integral Projection Models for modelling host-parasite dynamics.The Journal of animal ecology · 2016Article
- Synchrony in malaria infections: how intensifying within-host competition can be adaptive.The American naturalist · 2014Article
- Malarial pathocoenosis: beneficial and deleterious interactions between malaria and other human diseases.Frontiers in physiology · 2014Review
- Cross-reactive immune responses as primary drivers of malaria chronicity.Infection and immunity · 2014Article
- Immune-mediated competition in rodent malaria is most likely caused by induced changes in innate immune clearance of merozoites.PLoS computational biology · 2014Article
- Plasticity in transmission strategies of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi: environmental and genetic effects.Evolutionary applications · 2013Article
- Preferential invasion by Plasmodium merozoites and the self-regulation of parasite burden.PloS one · 2013Article
- Revealing mechanisms underlying variation in malaria virulence: effective propagation and host control of uninfected red blood cell supply.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Knowledge of the factors that limit parasite numbers offers hope of improved intervention strategies as well as exposing the selective forces that have shaped parasite life-history strategies. We develop a theoretical framework with which to consider the intra-host regulation of malaria parasite density. We analyse a general model that relates timing and magnitude of peak parasite density to initial dose under three different regulatory processes. The dynamics can be regulated either by top-down processes (upgradable immune regulation), bottom-up processes (fixed immune response and red blood cell (RBC) limitation) or a mixture of the two. We define and estimate the following key parameters: (i) the rate of RBC replenishment; (ii) the rate of destruction of uninfected RBCs; and (iii) the maximum parasite growth rate. Comparing predictions of this model with experimental results for rodent malaria in laboratory mice allowed us to reject functional forms of immune upregulation and/or effects of RBC limitation that were inconsistent with the data. Bottom-up regulation alone was insufficient to account for observed patterns without invoking either localized depletion of RBC density or merozoite interference. By contrast, an immune function upregulated in proportion to either merozoite or infected RBC density was consistent with observed dynamics. An immune response directed solely at merozoites required twice the level of activation of one directed at infected RBCs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.