Current understanding of the immune potential of B-cell subsets in malarial pathogenesis

Abstract

In the past several decades, our understanding of how B cells are generated and what function they perform has continued to advance. It is widely accepted that B-cell subsets play a critical role in mediating immune response. Surprisingly, human and murine malarial infections cause major alterations in the composition of B-cell subsets in both the spleen and periphery. Multiple B-cell subsets are well characterized in murine models following primary and secondary infection, although in human malarial infection, these subsets are not well defined. Furthermore, a rare known function of B cells includes the potential role of regulating the activities of other cells in the body as regulatory cells. Plasmodium infection strongly alters the frequency of these regulatory B cells indicating the immunoregulatory function of B cells in malarial. It is important to note that these subsets, taken together, form the cellular basis of humoral immune responses, allowing protection against a wide array of Plasmodium antigens to be achieved. However, it remains a challenge and an important area of investigation to understand how these B-cell subsets work together to provide protection against Plasmodium infection.