UCSF

A blood test that captures cumulative exposure over time and assesses levels of naturally acquired immunity (NAI) would provide a critical tool to monitor the impact of interventions to reduce malaria transmission and broaden our understanding of how NAI develops around the world as a function of age and exposure. This article describes a collaborative effort in multiple International Centers of Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMRs) to develop such tests using malaria-specific antibody responses as biosignatures of transmission and immunity. The focus is on the use of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax protein microarrays to identify a panel of the most informative antibody responses in diverse malaria-endemic settings representing an unparalleled spectrum of malaria transmission and malaria species mixes before and after interventions to reduce malaria transmission.