Fig. 1: PRL2 downregulation in myeloid cells is associated with severe malaria.
a–c C57BL/6 J mice were infected with 1 × 106 P. berghei ANKA (PbA) iRBCs. a Relative PRL2 mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) in different subsets of peripheral blood cells from the control (Con) and PbA infected mice at 7 days post infection (dpi), normalized to normal mice (n = 6 mice per group). b Spearman’s correlation analysis between PRL2 MFI in CD11b+ peripheral blood cells and the clinical scores of PbA infected mice (n = 46, samples from 10 mice at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 dpi). c Relative PRL2 MFI in CD11b+ peripheral blood cells from mice with uncomplicated and severe malaria, samples as in (b). d, e Wildtype (WT) and PRL2 myeloid cell conditional knockout (CKO) mice were infected with 1 × 106 PbA iRBCs. d Clinical scores, survival curve, (e) parasitemia and number of RBCs during the 14-day infection (n = 6 mice per group). Cross symbol indicates all CKO mice died. f–n WT and PRL2 CKO mice were infected with 1 × 106 PbA iRBCs (n = 6 mice per group). Samples were collected at 7 dpi. f Representative axial computed tomography (CT) images of lungs. Scale bars, 5 mm. g Quantification of mean pulmonary density from (f). h Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining of lung sections. Representative images are shown. Scale bars, up: 50 μm, down: 10 μm. i Pulmonary pathology scores and infiltrated neutrophils numbers were quantified from (h). j Numbers of peripheral leukocytes, neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes. k Concentrations of serum cytokines and chemokines. l Quantification of peripheral neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) via an analysis of Giemsa-stained blood smears. m Quantification of peripheral NETs via immunofluorescence co-staining with myeloperoxidase (MPO) and citrullinated histone H3 (Cit-H3). n Relative OD value of serum MPO-DNA level. All data were pooled from two independent experiments. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM or in violin plots showing the median and interquartile range. p values were calculated by two-tailed unpaired t test (a, d left, g, i up, l, m, n), two-tailed Mann–Whitney test (c, i down), Spearman’s correlation (b) or log-rank test (d right) and shown in the figures. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
