/pdf/gamma-globulin-and-acquired-immunity-to-human-malaria-1qxe55zava.pdf

Gamma-Globulin and Acquired Immunity to Human Malaria

Pregnant women in malarious areas may experience a variety of adverse consequences from malaria infection including maternal anemia, placental accumulation of parasites, low birth weight (LBW) from prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), fetal parasite exposure and congenital infection, and infant mortality (IM) linked to preterm-LBW and IUGR-LBW. We reviewed studies between 1985 and 2000 and summarized the malaria population attributable risk (PAR) that accounts for both the prevalence of the risk factors in the population and the magnitude of the associated risk for anemia, LBW, and IM. Consequences from anemia and human immunodeficiency virus infection in these studies were also considered. Population attributable risks were substantial: malaria was associated with anemia (PAR range = 3-15%), LBW (8-14%), preterm-LBW (8-36%), IUGR-LBW (13-70%), and IM (3-8%). Human immunodeficiency virus was associated with anemia (PAR range = 12-14%), LBW (11-38%), and direct transmission in 20-40% of newborns, with direct mortality consequences. Maternal anemia was associated with LBW (PAR range = 7-18%), and fetal anemia was associated with increased IM (PAR not available). We estimate that each year 75,000 to 200,000 infant deaths are associated with malaria infection in pregnancy. The failure to apply known effective antimalarial interventions through antenatal programs continues to contribute substantially to infant deaths globally.

The burden of malaria in pregnancy in malaria-endemic areas.

Naturally acquired immunity to falciparum malaria protects millions of people routinely exposed to Plasmodium falciparum infection from severe disease and death. There is no clear concept about how this protection works. There is no general agreement about the rate of onset of acquired immunity or what constitutes the key determinants of protection; much less is there a consensus regarding the mechanism(s) of protection. This review summarizes what is understood about naturally acquired and experimentally induced immunity against malaria with the help of evolving insights provided by biotechnology and places these insights in the context of historical, clinical, and epidemiological observations. We advocate that naturally acquired immunity should be appreciated as being virtually 100% effective against severe disease and death among heavily exposed adults. Even the immunity that occurs in exposed infants may exceed 90% effectiveness. The induction of an adult-like immune status among high-risk infants in sub-Saharan Africa would greatly diminish disease and death caused by P. falciparum. The mechanism of naturally acquired immunity that occurs among adults living in areas of hyper- to holoendemicity should be understood with a view toward duplicating such protection in infants and young children in areas of endemicity.

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Acquired immunity to malaria.

https://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/who-keeps.pdf

Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, proposed in 1943, has been one of the most cognitively contagious ideas in the behavioral sciences. Anticipating later evolutionary views of human motivation and cognition, Maslow viewed human motives as based in innate and universal predispositions. We revisit the idea of a motivational hierarchy in light of theoretical developments at the interface of evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology. After considering motives at three different levels of analysis, we argue that the basic foundational structure of the pyramid is worth preserving, but that it should be buttressed with a few architectural extensions. By adding a contemporary design feature, connections between fundamental motives and immediate situational threats and opportunities should be highlighted. By incorporating a classical element, these connections can be strengthened by anchoring the hierarchy of human motives more firmly in the bedrock of modern evolutionary theory. We propose a renovated hierarchy of fundamental motives that serves as both an integrative framework and a generative foundation for future empirical research.

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Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations

It is a great honor for me to be invited to give this Soper Lecture. I met Fred Soper only once—at the 6th International Congresses of Tropical Medicine and Malaria at Lisbon in 1958. I had, of course, known of him for a number of years beforehand, and had read with the greatest interest his account of how Anopheles gambiae was halted in its invasion of Brazil and finally expelled from an area of some 18,000 square miles. In his lifetime, Soper was associated with many significant achievements in diverse fields of public health, but to me as a malariologist none compares with his eradication of Anopheles gambiae from Brazil. More than 40 years later, this episode still stands as one of the most significant victories that man has scored over malaria and epitomizes Soper's administrative genius and technological competence.

Epidemiology, malaria and pregnancy.

Hypotheses for the evolution of human female life-history characteristics have often focused on the social nature of human societies, which allows women to share the burden of childcare and provisioning amongst other members of their kin group. We test the hypothesis that child health and survival probabilities will be improved by the presence of kin using a longitudinal database from rural Gambia. We find that the only kin to improve the nutritional status of children significantly (apart from mothers) are maternal grandmothers, and that this is reflected in higher survival probabilities for children with living maternal grandmothers. There is also evidence that the reproductive status of the maternal grandmother influences child nutrition, with young children being taller in the presence of non-reproductive grandmothers than grandmothers who are still reproductively active. Paternal grandmothers and male kin, including fathers, have negligible impacts on the nutritional status and survival of children.

/pdf/maternal-grandmothers-improve-nutritional-status-and-3nmuzd0a8o.pdf

Maternal grandmothers improve nutritional status and survival of children in rural Gambia.

We analyzed data that were collected continuously between 1950 and 1974 from a rural area of the Gambia to determine the effects of kin on child mortality. Multilevel event-history models were used to demonstrate that having a living mother, maternal grandmother, or elder sisters had a significant positive effect on the survival probabilities of children, whereas having a living father, paternal grandmother, grandfather, or elder brothers had no effect. The mother’s remarriage to a new husband had a detrimental effect on child survival, but there was little difference in the mortality rates of children who were born to monogamous or polygynous fathers. The implications of these results for understanding the evolution of human life-history are discussed.

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The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia

(1955b). Neural Control of the Pituitary Gland, p. 150. Arnold, London. Hartman, F. A., and Brownell, K. A. (1930). Science, 72, 76. Hays, E. H., and White, W. F. (1954). Recent Progr. Hormone Res., 10, 265. Hechter, O., Jacobsen, R. P., Jeanloz, R. W., Levy, H., Marshall, C. W., Pincus, G., and Schenker, V. (1950). Arch. Biochem., 25, 457. Hellman, L., Bradlow, H. L., Adesman, J., Fukushima, D. K., Kulp, J. L., and Gallagher, T. F. (1954). J. din. Invest., 33. 1106. Henriques, S. B., Henriques, 0. B., and Selye, H. (1949). Endocrinology, 45, 153. Hill, R. T. (1948). Ibid., 42, 339. Hill, S. R., Reiss, R. J.. Forsham, P. H., and Thorn, G. W. (1950). J.

/pdf/effects-of-heavy-and-repeated-malarial-infections-on-gambian-bef7snzsw1.pdf

Effects of Heavy and Repeated Malarial Infections on Gambian Infants and Children

1. 1) Gamma globulin from adult West Africans which is known to have a consistent anti-malarial action in West African children was administered to East African subjects with severe P. falciparum infections. Nine children aged 6–20 months with an initial parasitaemia of 10,900–375,000 per c.m., each received 1.4 to 2.2 grammes γ-globulin. 2. 2) In all cases γ-globulin therapy was followed by an abrupt reduction in parasite density and recovery from clinical illness similar to that observed in treated West African children. By the fourth day the average parasite count was less than 1 per cent. of the mean initial count; in five out of nine cases, parasite levels remained within the range of the West African children during the remaining 5 days of observation. These results indicate that West African γ-globulin contains antibody active against East African malaria, so that P. falciparum parasites of East and West Africa must be antigenically similar. 3. 3) Three East African children showed an undoubted recrudescence of parasitaemia after the fourth day, so that the occurrence of a serologically distinct strain of P. falciparum resistant to West African immune γ-globulin cannot at present be excluded.

Ian A. McGregor

Papers

Epidemiology, malaria and pregnancy.

Maternal grandmothers improve nutritional status and survival of children in rural Gambia.

The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia

Effects of Heavy and Repeated Malarial Infections on Gambian Infants and Children

Treatment of East African P. falciparum malaria with West African human γ-globulin