A rapid reduction in parasitemia associated with damage to intraerythrocytic parasites was observed in Plasmodium vinckei-infected mice after they had received a single intravenous injection of alloxan. This was not prevented by prior injection of glucose, but was prevented by desferrioxamine or diethyldithiocarbamate. Prior injection of propanol partially blocked the phenomenon. A transient hemolysis was observed in malaria-infected mice, but not in controls, after injection of alloxan. This was also blocked by desferrioxamine, but not by glucose. Both the fall in parasitemia and hemolysis occurred, but less dramatically, when phenylhydrazine or hydrogen peroxide was injected into parasitized mice. Again, the hemolysis was blocked by desferrioxamine. These observations are consistent with the parasite death and hemolysis being mediated by reactive oxygen species, possibly hydroxyl radicals, and have implications for our understanding of hemolysis, endothelial damage, and parasite suppression in acute malaria. Our evidence that malaria parasites are susceptible to free oxygen radicals supports the view that high intraerythrocytic oxidative stress may contribute to the high frequencies in malarial areas of genes for certain erythrocyte-related traits and suggests that some antimalarial drugs may suppress parasites partly through oxidative damage.

https://iai.asm.org/content/iai/39/1/1.full.pdf

Evidence for reactive oxygen intermediates causing hemolysis and parasite death in malaria.

Tumor necrosis factor, lymphocyte-activating factor, and enhanced levels of type I interferon were found in serum samples taken 2 h after mice infected with Plasmodium vinckei subsp. petteri received a small intravenous injection of endotoxin. These three mediators are among those released when mice receive an endotoxin injection 2 weeks after Mycobacterium bovis BCG or Corynebacterium parvum have been administered. There is indirect evidence that this wider range of mediators is also released in P. vinckei subsp. petteri-infected mice given parenteral endotoxin. A recent report that endotoxin is detectable in the plasma of malaria-infected mice and children implies that these mediators may also be released in the acute phase of the natural infection. We propose that these macrophage-derived mediators may be important in the glucocorticoid antagonism, bone marrow depression, fever, hypergammaglobulinemia, splenomegaly, elevation of serum amyloid A, consumptive coagulopathy, and shock syndrome with associated organ damage which can accompany malaria. The intraerythrocytic parasite death seen at crisis in some malarias, as well as the subsequent development of specific protective immunity, may also depend on these mediators.

Possible importance of macrophage-derived mediators in acute malaria.

https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/31135/2/01_Clark_How_TNF_was_recognized_as_a_2007.pdf

How TNF was recognized as a key mechanism of disease

The pathophysiology of falciparum malaria.

There is now wide acceptance of the concept that the similarity between many acute infectious diseases, be they viral, bacterial, or parasitic in origin, is caused by the overproduction of inflammatory cytokines initiated when the organism interacts with the innate immune system. This is also true of certain noninfectious states, such as the tissue injury syndromes. This review discusses the historical origins of these ideas, which began with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and spread from their origins in malaria research to other fields. As well the more established proinflammatory mediators, such as TNF, interleukin-1, and lymphotoxin, the roles of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide, which are chiefly inhibitory, are discussed. The established and potential roles of two more recently recognized contributors, overactivity of the enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and the escape of high-mobility-group box 1 (HMGB1) protein from its normal location into the circulation, are also put in context. The pathogenesis of the disease caused by falciparum malaria is then considered in the light of what has been learned about the roles of these mediators in these other diseases, as well as in malaria itself.

Pathogenesis of Malaria and Clinically Similar Conditions

Mice which had been pre-treated with killed Corynebacterium parvum given intravenously or intraperitoneally, but not subcutaneously, were completely resistant ot infection withBabesia microti or B. rodhaini, and protected from death caused by Plasmodium vinckeior P. chabaudiinfection. There is evidence that the parasites died within circulating erythrocytes. This occurred much too soon for a specific antibody response to be evoked, and no antibody could be detected by the indirect fluorescent-anitbody technique. Thus it is suggested that a non-secific soluble mediator may play an important role in the protection observed.

I. A. Clark

Papers

Protection of mice against Babesia spp. and Plasmodium spp. with killed Corynebacterium parvum.