Cytokine levels during mild and cerebral falciparum malaria in children living in a mesoendemic area

• Published in: Tropical medicine & international health Vol. 2; no. 7; pp. 673 - 679
• Main Authors: Baptista, João Luís, Vanham, Guido, Wéry, Marc, Van Marck, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.07.1997; Blackwell Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Africa, Western - epidemiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Diseases - immunology; Brain Diseases - mortality; cerebral malaria; Child; Child, Preschool; cytokines; Cytokines - blood; Disease Reservoirs; Female; Human protozoal diseases; Humans; Immunity, Cellular; Infectious diseases; Malaria; Malaria, Falciparum - immunology; Malaria, Falciparum - mortality; Male; Medical sciences; mild malaria; Parasitemia - immunology; Parasitemia - mortality; Parasitic diseases; Plasmodium falciparum; Protozoal diseases; St. Tomé Island; Tropical medicine; Sao Tome and Principe; Atlantic Ocean Islands; Africa, Western; Human; Protozoa; Protozoal disease; Immune response; Malaria; Pathogenesis; Cytokine; Cellular immunity; Parasitosis; Infection; Plasmodium falciparum; Pernicious attack; Sporozoa; Child
• ISSN: 1360-2276; 1365-3156
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3156.1997.d01-355.x

Cell‐mediated immunity and cytokines are probably involved in the pathogenesis of malaria. To investigate the role and the activity of different immune cells, we measured levels of tumour necrosis factor‐(TNF‐α), gamma interferon (IFN‐γ) and several interleukins (IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6 and IL‐10) in children with mild (MM) and cerebral (CM) Plasmodium falciparum malaria and compared them with those of healthy children from Guadalupe – Lobata District, St. Tomé Island, where malaria is mesoendemic. Both groups of patients had significantly higher levels of IL‐6, IL‐10 and TNF‐α than controls. For IL‐2, IL‐4 and IFN‐γ we found no difference between the groups. However, 24 h after admission the levels of IL‐10 and IL‐6 were significantly higher in CM than in MM patients, although 7 days after treatment they returned to normal levels, similar to those found in control children. Therefore, TNF‐α IL‐6 and IL‐10 increase during Plasmodium falciparum attacks in all children, not only in those with cerebral malaria. This finding suggests the activation of the monocyte/macrophage system during the early stage of clinical malaria.