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Hepatocytes break the silence during liver-stage malaria

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 17–19 (2014)Cite this article

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Liver-stage Plasmodium infection triggers a type I interferon transcriptional program in hepatocytes that amplifies an innate immune response within hepatic myeloid cells. This minimizes liver parasite load and delays the release of disease-causing parasites into the bloodstream (pages 47–53).

All clinical symptoms of malaria occur in the blood stage of infection; however, parasites transmitted by mosquitoes must first replicate and differentiate for several days in hepatocytes before their release into the bloodstream. Because the liver stage of Plasmodium infection is clinically silent, it has been assumed that this phase does not induce any immunological response, leaving the undetected parasite to multiply with relative impunity.

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Figure 1: Sensing malaria parasites in the liver.

Marina Corral Spence

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ashraful Haque and Christian Engwerda are at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.,

    Ashraful Haque & Christian Engwerda

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  1. Ashraful Haque
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  2. Christian Engwerda
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Correspondence to Christian Engwerda.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Haque, A., Engwerda, C. Hepatocytes break the silence during liver-stage malaria. Nat Med 20, 17–19 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3446

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