Browsing by Author "Mota, Maria M"
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- Early skin immunological disturbance after Plasmodium-infected mosquito bitesPublication . Silva, Henrique Borges da; Caetano, Susana S; Monteiro, Isadora; Gómez-Conde, Iván; Hanson, Kirsten; Penha-Gonçalves, Carlos; Olivieri, David N; Mota, Maria M; Marinho, Cláudio R.; D’Imperio Lima, Maria R.; Tadokoro, Carlos EAlthough the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) during malaria infection has been studied extensively, such studies have focused exclusively on the role of Treg during the blood stage of infection; little is known about the detailed mechanisms of Tregs and sporozoite deposition in the dermis by mosquito bites. In this paper we show that sporozoites introduced into the skin by mosquito bites increase the mobility of skin Tregs and dendritic cells (DCs). We also show differences in MHC class II and/or CD86 expression on skin-resident dendritic cell subtypes and macrophages. From the observed decrease of the number of APCs into draining lymph nodes, suppression of CD28 expression in conventional CD4 T cells, and a low homeostatic proliferation of skin-migrated CD4 T found in nude mice indicate that Tregs may play a fundamental role during the initial phase of malaria parasite inoculation into the mammalian host
- Highly dynamic host actin reorganization around developing Plasmodium inside hepatocytesPublication . Gomes-Santos, Carina S S; Itoe, Maurice A; Afonso, Cristina; Henriques, Ricardo; Gardner, Rui; Sepúlveda, Nuno; Simões, Pedro D; Raquel, Helena; Almeida, António Paulo; Moita, Luis F; Frischknecht, Friedrich; Mota, Maria MPlasmodium sporozoites are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes and infect hepatocytes, where a single sporozoite replicates into thousands of merozoites inside a parasitophorous vacuole. The nature of the Plasmodium-host cell interface, as well as the interactions occurring between these two organisms, remains largely unknown. Here we show that highly dynamic hepatocyte actin reorganization events occur around developing Plasmodium berghei parasites inside human hepatoma cells. Actin reorganization is most prominent between 10 to 16 hours post infection and depends on the actin severing and capping protein, gelsolin. Live cell imaging studies also suggest that the hepatocyte cytoskeleton may contribute to parasite elimination during Plasmodium development in the liver.