Plasmodium cynomolgi: serum-mediated blocking and enhancement of infectivity to mosquitoes during infections in the natural host, Macaca sinica

The infectivity of Plasmodium cynomolgi in its natural host, the toque monkey, Macaca sinica, to Anopheles tessellatus mosquitoes was studied in relation to the evolution of anti-sexual-stage immunity in the host during the course of a blood-induced infection. The effects of serum on the infectivity of gametocytes and the intrinsic infectivity of gametocytes to mosquitoes on each day were assessed in membrane feeding experiments. Mosquitoes were also directly fed on the animal on each day. Our results demonstrate that during the very early patent period, before the peak of gametocytemia, the infection serum enhanced the infectivity of gametocytes up to two to three times above their infectivity in normal monkey serum. Subsequently, serum drawn post-peak of parasitemia ceased to enhance, and began to suppress, infectivity. After 2-3 months, long after parasitemias ceased patency, the serum no longer suppressed and between 3 and 4 months the serum again tended to enhance gamete infectivity before losing any significant effect. Serum infectivity enhancing effects were consistent with low indirect immunofluorescence test antibody titers against blood stage parasites first during the very early days of a blood infection before reaching blocking levels, and again during convalescence when antibodies were declining. The serum infectivity blocking effects on gametocytes were seen at the peak of antibody titers from about Days 9 to 23 of an infection. From 78 to 95% of the total infectivity of the parasite to mosquitoes during an infection occurred when infectivity enhancing activity was present in the serum. Hence, the infectivity of the parasite to mosquitoes was largely dependent on infectivity enhancing antibodies in host serum.