Transcript kill mice

Mechanism for malaria:
A look into the innate immune
system
Summer 2015, VFIC Carilion
Sam Saylor with Dr. Tracy Deem Deem
What is malaria?
Malaria lifecycle
The immune system: Innate v.
Adaptive
Innate and Adaptive Cells
Work from JMU
In collaboration with Dr. Chris Lantz at JMU we
started a malaria pathogenesis research project
examining the role of the hematopoietic growth
factor interleukin-3 (IL-3).
Using a murine model, their lab showed that when
infected with malaria (Plasmodium berghei NK
65) the male WT mice died around 20 days sooner
than the IL-3 KO mice, suggesting that IL-3
exacerbates disease.
Kill curve
Characterizing the infection
A look at the mechanism
Going off the already published data
from JMU, we know that the KO mice
survive the infection longer.
The question becomes, what is the
mechanism for their survival?
Cytokine levels
Flow cytometry analysis of cells
Cell Differences
Hypothesis: Over inflammation
Due to the WT mice having higher levels of
inflammatory cells and cytokines we hypothesize
that they are dying sooner due to an
overwhelming inflammatory response that kills
the healthy tissue.
Next Steps:
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DC/Mac activation
NK cell isolation
IFN-γ assay
Testosterone assay
Testosterone ELISA
DC Activation
IFN-γ ELISA