Immune cell variations contribute to malaria severity
At least 250 million people are infected with malaria every year, and about half a million of those die from the disease. A new study from MIT offers a possible explanation for why some people are more likely to experience a more severe, and potentially fatal, form of the disease. The researchers found that in some patients, immune cells called natural killer cells (NK cells) fail to turn on the genes necessary to effectively destroy malaria-infected red blood cells. The researchers also showed that they could stimulate NK cells to do a better job of killing infected red blood cells grown in a lab dish. This suggests a possible approach for developing treatments that could help reduce the severity of malaria infections in some people, especially children, says Jianzhu Chen, one of the study’s senior authors. “This is one approach to that problem,” says Chen, an MIT professor of biology and a member...