Interferon in Malaria

Excerpt

To the editor: In the recent NIH Conference report, Malaria: Host-Defense Mechanisms and Complications, presented in the August 1970 ANNALS, Dr. John N. Sheagren discussed several types of defense mechanisms, such as antibodies, immunoglobulins, complement, cellular immune factors, and phagocytosis.

There is some early experimental evidence in animals that another aspect of host response, interferon, may play a role in malarial infections.

Jahiel and his co-workers (1, 2) and Huang and his associates (3, 4) have worked on simultaneous arbovirus and plasmodia infections. Various interferon inducers (Newcastle disease virus, Statolan, and polyriboninosinic acid) were shown by Jahiel and colleagues (1)