1. Mechanism for malaria: A look into the innate immune system Summer 2015, VFIC Carilion Sam Saylor with Dr. Tracy Deem Deem

2. What is malaria?

3. Malaria lifecycle

4. The immune system: Innate v. Adaptive

5. Innate and Adaptive Cells

6. 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.

7. Kill curve

8. Characterizing the infection

9. 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?

10. Cytokine levels

11. Flow cytometry analysis of cells

12. Cell Differences

13. 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.

14. Next Steps: DC/Mac activation NK cell isolation IFN-γ assay Testosterone assay

15. Testosterone ELISA

16. DC Activation

17. IFN-γ ELISA