Trial reportNature communications2014
Host iron status and iron supplementation mediate susceptibility to erythrocytic stage Plasmodium falciparum.
Trial report in Nature communications, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 137 citations in OpenAlex.
- Improving reproducibility of Plasmodium falciparum culture: a large-language-model-driven literature review and a parasite growth variability assessment of donor red blood cells.Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of weekly iron-folic acid supplementation on nutritional status and parasitic reinfection among school-age children and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of iron intake on neurobehavioural outcomes in African children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Wellcome open research · 2021Pooled it
- Ferric carboxymaltose versus standard-of-care oral iron to treat second-trimester anaemia in Malawian pregnant women: a randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Hepcidin-guided screen-and-treat interventions for young children with iron-deficiency anaemia in The Gambia: an individually randomised, three-arm, double-blind, controlled, proof-of-concept, non-inferiority trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2023Trial
- Associations of maternal iron deficiency with malaria infection in a cohort of pregnant Papua New Guinean women.Malaria journal · 2022Trial
- Delayed iron does not alter cognition or behavior among children with severe malaria and iron deficiency.Pediatric research · 2020Trial
- Hepcidin-guided screen-and-treat interventions against iron-deficiency anaemia in pregnancy: a randomised controlled trial in The Gambia.The Lancet. Global health · 2019Trial
- Micronutrient powder supplements combined with nutrition education marginally improve growth amongst children aged 6-23 months in rural Burkina Faso: A cluster randomized controlled trial.Maternal & child nutrition · 2019Trial
- The ferroportin Q248H mutation protects from anemia, but not malaria or bacteremia.Science advances · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Host iron status and erythropoietic response to iron supplementation determines susceptibility to the RBC stage of falciparum malaria during pregnancy.Scientific reports · 2017Trial
- Impact of fortified versus unfortified lipid-based supplements on morbidity and nutritional status: A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial in ill Gambian children.PLoS medicine · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- The effect of providing lipid-based nutrient supplements on morbidity in rural Malawian infants and young children: a randomized controlled trial.Public health nutrition · 2016Trial
- Effects of community-based sales of micronutrient powders on morbidity episodes in preschool children in Western Kenya.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2016Trial
- Serum iron is associated with the prognosis in sepsis based on a large-scale database.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Fifty shades of iron: Unorthodox mechanisms of iron acquisition and utilization in blood-stage Plasmodium parasites.PLoS pathogens · 2026Review
- Host iron deficiency protects againstScience advances · 2026Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Iron deficiency and malaria have similar global distributions, and frequently co-exist in pregnant women and young children. Where both conditions are prevalent, iron supplementation is complicated by observations that iron deficiency anaemia protects against falciparum malaria, and that iron supplements increase susceptibility to clinically significant malaria, but the mechanisms remain obscure. Here, using an in vitro parasite culture system with erythrocytes from iron-deficient and replete human donors, we demonstrate that Plasmodium falciparum infects iron-deficient erythrocytes less efficiently. In addition, owing to merozoite preference for young erythrocytes, iron supplementation of iron-deficient individuals reverses the protective effects of iron deficiency. Our results provide experimental validation of field observations reporting protective effects of iron deficiency and harmful effects of iron administration on human malaria susceptibility. Because recovery from anaemia requires transient reticulocytosis, our findings imply that in malarious regions iron supplementation should be accompanied by effective measures to prevent falciparum malaria.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.