| dc.contributor.author | Ana Maria Fonseca, Raquel Gonzalez, Azucena Bardaji, Chenjerai Jairoce, Maria Ruperez, Alfons Jimenez, Llorenc Quinto, Pau Cistero, Anifa Vala, Charfudin Sacoor, Himanshu Gupta, Jennifer Hegewisch-Taylor, Joe Brew, Nicaise Tuikue Ndam, Simon Kariuki, Marta Lopez, Carlota Dobano, Chetan E Chitnis, Peter Ouma, Michael Ramharter, Salim Abdulla, John J Aponte, Achille Massougbodji, Valerie Briand, Ghyslain Mombo-Ngoma, Meghna Desai, Michel Cot, Arsenio Nhacolo, Esperanca Sevene, Eusebio Macete, Clara Menendez, Alfredo Mayor | |
| dc.description.abstract | Pregnant women constitute a promising sentinel group for
continuous monitoring of malaria transmission. To identify
antibody signatures of recent Plasmodium falciparum exposure during pregnancy, we dissected IgG responses against
VAR2CSA, the parasite antigen that mediates placental
sequestration. We used a multiplex peptide-based suspension array in 2,354 samples from pregnant women from
Mozambique, Benin, Kenya, Gabon, Tanzania, and Spain.
Two VAR2CSA peptides of limited polymorphism were immunogenic and targeted by IgG responses readily boosted
during infection and with estimated half-lives of <2 years.
Seroprevalence against these peptides reflected declines
and rebounds of transmission in southern Mozambique during 2004–2012, reduced exposure associated with use of
preventive measures during pregnancy, and local clusters
of transmission that were missed by detection of P. falciparum infections. These data suggest that VAR2CSA serology can provide a useful adjunct for the fine-scale estimation of the malaria burden among pregnant women over
time and space | en_US |
