ArticleNature microbiology2019
Modelling pathogen load dynamics to elucidate mechanistic determinants of host-Plasmodium falciparum interactions.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Risk of malaria in young children after periconceptional iron supplementation.Maternal & child nutrition · 2021Trial
- Mitochondrial activity promotes neutrophil degranulation and endothelial dysfunction in systemic infections.EMBO molecular medicine · 2026Article
- The Role of Viral Load in COVID-19-Induced Encephalitis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Methylene blue treatment of fatal cerebral malaria and identification of potential blood biomarkers.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Multiplication rate variation of malaria parasites from hospital cases and community infections.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Research Advances in Clinical Strategies and Preclinical Models for Syphilis Relapse.Infection and drug resistance · 2025Review
- The multifaceted roles of cathepsins in immune and inflammatory responses: implications for cancer therapy, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases.Biomarker research · 2024Review
- Neutrophils versus Protozoan Parasites:Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Longitudinal changes in iron homeostasis in human experimental and clinical malaria.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Plant Kunitz Inhibitors and Their Interaction with Proteases: Current and Potential Pharmacological Targets.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Modelling upper respiratory viral load dynamics of SARS-CoV-2.BMC medicine · 2022Article
- Determinants of brain swelling in pediatric and adult cerebral malaria.JCI insight · 2021Article
- Malaria parasites both repress host CXCL10 and use it as a cue for growth acceleration.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Predictors of outcome in childhoodVirulence · 2020Review
- Intrinsic multiplication rate variation and plasticity of human blood stage malaria parasites.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Mediterranean Diet: Lipids, Inflammation, and Malaria Infection.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Leveraging Computational Modeling to Understand Infectious Diseases.Current pathobiology reports · 2020Review
- Host-Malaria Parasite Interactions and Impacts on Mutual Evolution.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 8 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
During infection, increasing pathogen load stimulates both protective and harmful aspects of the host response. The dynamics of this interaction are hard to quantify in humans, but doing so could improve understanding of the mechanisms of disease and protection. We sought to model the contributions of the parasite multiplication rate and host response to observed parasite load in individual subjects infected with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, using only data obtained at the time of clinical presentation, and then to identify their mechanistic correlates. We predicted higher parasite multiplication rates and lower host responsiveness in cases of severe malaria, with severe anaemia being more insidious than cerebral malaria. We predicted that parasite-growth inhibition was associated with platelet consumption, lower expression of CXCL10 and type 1 interferon-associated genes, but increased cathepsin G and matrix metallopeptidase 9 expression. We found that cathepsin G and matrix metallopeptidase 9 directly inhibit parasite invasion into erythrocytes. The parasite multiplication rate was associated with host iron availability and higher complement factor H levels, lower expression of gametocyte-associated genes but higher expression of translation-associated genes in the parasite. Our findings demonstrate the potential of using explicit modelling of pathogen load dynamics to deepen understanding of host-pathogen interactions and identify mechanistic correlates of protection.
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.