Transcription Profiling of Malaria-Naïve and Semi-Immune Colombian Volunteers in a Plasmodium vivax Sporozoite Challenge [RNA-Seq]

We report two clusters in the overall profiles of expression among the samples. At the parasitemia onset, there is a strong interferon response reflected in up-regulation of co-regulated transcripts, while unexpectedly we also see down-regulation of transcripts related to TLR signaling and innate immunity. RNASeq also suggested differential expression of reticulocytes and a subset of T cell function. No obvious difference in the transcriptomes of naïve and semi-immune volunteers was seen, however several hundred genes were up-regulated in naïve individuals. RNA-seq analysis was performed for 12 individuals (6 each from Buenaventura and Cali) for two of the time points, namely the diagnosis day and baseline (pre-challenge day).