Disrupted Iron Metabolism and Mortality during Co-infection with Malaria and an Intestinal Gram-Negative Extracellular Pathogen

Abstract

Highlights d Co-infection with malaria and a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen leads to high mortality d Co-infection leads to elevated plasma heme and systemic bacterial persistence d Iron acquisition is critical for bacterial persistence and mortality

Uptake of Plasmodium chabaudi hemozoin drives Kupffer cell death and fuels superinfections

“…Besides, the mortality of malaria patients co-infected with Gram negative bacteria is up to eight times higher than in individuals with malaria monoinfection 13 . In line with this, co-infection of mice with Plasmodium chabaudi (P. chabaudi), Citrobacter rodentium and Salmonella typhimurium drive an excessive host inflammatory response and increased lethality 14,15 . Additionally, it has been demonstrated that infection with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) can suppress the anti-malarial humoral response to a secondary malaria infection 16 , and co-infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or dengue-infections which are prevalent…”