Malaria – one of the major infectious diseases worldwide – is contracted by infectious Plasmodium spp. sporozoites deposited into the skin of the human host by an infected female mosquito. Within a few hours, a number of these sporozoites reach the liver via the bloodstream, where they undergo massive replication whilst remaining clinically silent. A better understanding of host–pathogen interactions in the liver is needed to develop efficient intervention strategies targeting the malaria liver-stage infection. In a new study, researchers performed spatial transcriptomics in combination with single-nuclei RNA sequencing over multiple time points in Plasmodium berghei-infected mouse liver tissues. They identified important changes in spatial gene expression in the infected liver, including for genes involved in lipid homeostasis at the infection site and genes related to inflammation between lobular zones. The team also identified regions with enrichment of different inflammatory cells (‘inflammatory hotspots’), which could be involved in parasite elimination and could be targeted to increase protection against Plasmodium.
Original reference: Hildebrandt, F. et al. Nat. Commun. 15, 7105 (2024)
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