CNS hypoxia is more pronounced in murine cerebral than noncerebral malaria and is reversed by erythropoietin.

Abstract

Cerebral malaria (CM) is associated with high mortality and risk of sequelae, and development of adjunct therapies is hampered by limited knowledge of its pathogenesis. To assess the role of cerebral hypoxia, we used two experimental models of CM, Plasmodium berghei ANKA in CBA and C57BL/6 mice, and two models of malaria without neurologic signs, P. berghei K173 in CBA mice and P. berghei ANKA in BALB/c mice. Hypoxia was demonstrated in brain sections using intravenous pimonidazole and staining with hypoxia-inducible factor-1α-specific antibody. Cytopathic hypoxia was studied using poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) gene knockout mice. The effect of erythropoietin, an oxygen-sensitive cytokine that mediates protection against CM, on cerebral hypoxia was studied in C57BL/6 mice. Numerous hypoxic foci of neurons and glial cells were observed in mice with CM. Substantially fewer and smaller foci were observed in mice without CM, and hypoxia seemed to be confined to neuronal cell somas. PARP-1-deficient mice were not protected against CM, which argues against a role for cytopathic hypoxia. Erythropoietin therapy reversed the development of CM and substantially reduced the degree of neural hypoxia. These findings demonstrate cerebral hypoxia in malaria, strongly associated with cerebral dysfunction and a possible target for adjunctive therapy.

• Authors: Casper Hempel, Valery Combes, Nicholas Henry Hunt, Jørgen Anders Lindholm Kurtzhals, Georges Emile Raymond Grau
• Journal: The American journal of pathology (Am J Pathol) Vol. 179 Issue 4 Pg. 1939-50 (Oct 2011) ISSN: 1525-2191 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 21854739 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2011 American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Fluorescent Dyes
• Hif1a protein, mouse
• Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit
• Nitroimidazoles
• Erythropoietin
• pimonidazole
• Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases

Topics

• Animals
• Brain (drug effects, parasitology, pathology)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Erythropoietin (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Female
• Fluorescent Dyes (metabolism)
• Humans
• Hypoxia (pathology)
• Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit (metabolism)
• Malaria, Cerebral (drug therapy, parasitology, pathology, prevention & control)
• Mice
• Nitroimidazoles (metabolism)
• Parasitemia (complications, pathology)
• Plasmodium berghei (drug effects)
• Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases (deficiency, metabolism)
• Survival Analysis
• Treatment Outcome