ArticlePloS one2012
Testing in mice the hypothesis that melanin is protective in malaria infections.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does vitamin D reduce the mortality rate of Plasmodium infection?: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Malaria journal · 2023Pooled it
- Multi-system dysregulation in placental malaria contributes to adverse perinatal outcomes in mice.Infection and immunity · 2025Article
- Brain endothelial cells exposure to malaria parasites links type I interferon signalling to antigen presentation, immunoproteasome activation, endothelium disruption, and cellular metabolism.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Applications of Melanin and Melanin-Like Nanoparticles in Cancer Therapy: A Review of Recent Advances.Cancers · 2021Review
- Vitamin D in malaria: more hypotheses than clues.Heliyon · 2019Review
- MRI demonstrates glutamine antagonist-mediated reversal of cerebral malaria pathology in mice.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Glucose metabolism mediates disease tolerance in cerebral malaria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Review
- Targeting glutamine metabolism rescues mice from late-stage cerebral malaria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
- Simultaneously targeting inflammatory response and parasite sequestration in brain to treat Experimental Cerebral Malaria.Scientific reports · 2015Article
- Article
- Vitamin D inhibits the occurrence of experimental cerebral malaria in mice by suppressing the host inflammatory response.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Malaria has had the largest impact of any infectious disease on shaping the human genome, exerting enormous selective pressure on genes that improve survival in severe malaria infections. Modern humans originated in Africa and lost skin melanization as they migrated to temperate regions of the globe. Although it is well documented that loss of melanization improved cutaneous Vitamin D synthesis, melanin plays an evolutionary ancient role in insect immunity to malaria and in some instances melanin has been implicated to play an immunoregulatory role in vertebrates. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that melanization may be protective in malaria infections using mouse models. Congenic C57BL/6 mice that differed only in the gene encoding tyrosinase, a key enzyme in the synthesis of melanin, showed no difference in the clinical course of infection by Plasmodium yoelii 17XL, that causes severe anemia, Plasmodium berghei ANKA, that causes severe cerebral malaria or Plasmodium chabaudi AS that causes uncomplicated chronic disease. Moreover, neither genetic deficiencies in vitamin D synthesis nor vitamin D supplementation had an effect on survival in cerebral malaria. Taken together, these results indicate that neither melanin nor vitamin D production improve survival in severe malaria.
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Registered trials
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.