Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Malaria pigment paralyzes dendritic cells. | J. Biol. Journal of Biology BioMed Central Minireview Malaria pigment paralyzes dendritic cells Britta C Urban and Stephen Todryk Address Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine University of Oxford Churchill Hospital Old Road Oxford OX3 7LJ UK. Correspondence Britta C Urban. Email Published 12 April 2006 Journal of Biology 2006 5 4 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http content 5 2 4 2006 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract The capacity of malarial infection to suppress the patient s immune responses both to the parasite and to other antigens has long puzzled researchers. A prime suspect the parasite-produced pigment hemozoin has now been clearly shown to mediate immunosuppression by inhibiting dendritic cell activity. Malaria caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium is one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide. Its effects are exacerbated by its ability to modulate immune responses which not only impairs the patient s ability to fight the malarial infection but can leave them vulnerable to some secondary infections and reduce the immune response to certain vaccines. Although this partial immunosuppression has been recognized for many years the underlying mechanisms are not well understood and the results of studies in both humans and animals have sometimes been contradictory. In recent years attention has focused on interference of parasites with the myeloid cells of the immune system in particular the antigen-presenting dendritic cells that are essential for the initiation of almost all adaptive immune responses. One consequence of malarial infection is the production of the so-called malaria pigment from the breakdown of hemoglobin by the parasite in infected red blood cells. Malaria pigment is a polymerized form of heme also known as hemozoin and has long been suspected to affect the function of .
