Background
Malaria is a world-wide disease with large areas of endemicity in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and South America. Caused by infection with
Plasmodium parasites, malaria affects around 200 million people, resulting in more than 400,000 deaths each year [
1].
Plasmodium parasites are transmitted through the bites of infected female
Anopheles mosquitos. The symptoms range from non-lethal uncomplicated malaria with fever, headache and vomiting, to life-threatening complications, such as severe malarial anaemia, cerebral malaria (CM), placental malaria and malaria-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (MA-ARDS) [
2]. Adults from high transmission areas are semi-immune and mostly protected against severe complications, including MA-ARDS. Thus, most cases of MA-ARDS are found in areas with low transmission of malaria and in non-immune travellers [
3].
MA-ARDS has been found in patients infected with the two main species infecting humans,
Plasmodium falciparum or
Plasmodium vivax. MA-ARDS is also a main complication in
Plasmodium knowlesi-infected patients [
4], and some cases with
Plasmodium ovale or
Plasmodium malariae have been reported [
5,
6]. The severity of MA-ARDS varies depending on the species of
Plasmodium concerned, with the worst prognosis for
P. falciparum infections [
7,
8]. This may, in part, be related to distinct preferences for invading immature red blood cells (RBCs) or reticulocytes versus mature RBCs or normocytes [
9,
10].
P. vivax and
P. ovale merozoites only invade reticulocytes [
11,
12]. This strongly reduces the number of cells available for invasion, since only between 1 and 2% of the total RBCs in the circulation are reticulocytes in healthy individuals. The reticulocyte restriction generally results in lower parasitaemias and has been linked to lower virulence compared to species which also invade normocytes, such as
P. falciparum. However, lethal
P. vivax-associated ARDS cases have been described in India [
13].
MA-ARDS is characterized by an excessive pulmonary inflammation and breakdown of the alveolar-capillary membrane, resulting in overwhelming vasogenic oedema, alveolar flooding and severe hypoxaemia [
3]. Adult patients with MA-ARDS have high mortality rates, up to 80%, despite anti-malarial treatment. The precise aetiology is poorly understood.
Post-
mortem histological analyses and data from experimental MA-ARDS models have indicated the occurrence of parasite sequestration and apoptosis of endothelial cells [
14‐
19]. Sequestration of
P. falciparum-infected RBCs is assumed to be highly important in the pathology of malaria [
20]. Importantly, a massive inflammatory reaction occurs in the lungs during MA-ARDS [
3,
15,
18], but the determinants which influence these phenomena remain poorly studied. This inflammation leads to accumulation of leukocytes in the pulmonary vasculature. Abundant macrophages and monocytes infiltrate the lungs of patients with MA-ARDS, in addition to lymphocytes and a few neutrophils [
3]. This induced inflammation may lead to alveolar-capillary damage with a fatal outcome. Malaria pigment or haemozoin is abundantly present in infected RBCs (iRBCs), macrophages and monocytes in the lungs. The correlation of haemozoin deposition with pulmonary oedema and inflammatory cytokine induction in the lungs of mice with MA-ARDS suggests an important role for haemozoin in the pathogenesis [
17].
To investigate the pathogenesis of MA-ARDS, several mouse models for MA-ARDS have been proposed in the past 10 years. Pulmonary oedema manifests in C57BL/6 mice infected with the
Plasmodium berghei strain ANKA, the classical model for experimental cerebral malaria (ECM). This model has been used to investigate the pathogenesis of MA-ARDS [
15,
21,
22]. However, the early and fulminant cerebral pathology in this model tends to limit the time-window available to study the pulmonary pathology. Therefore, several groups have developed alternative models of MA-ARDS. Epiphanio et al. [
23] developed a model based on the infection of DBA/2 mice with
P. berghei ANKA. These mice are entirely resistant to the cerebral pathology and approximately 50% of the mice develop malaria-associated acute lung injury (MA-ALI). Hee et al. [
24] proposed the infection of C57BL/6 mice with
Plasmodium berghei strain K173, which also causes lung pathology with increased pulmonary water content, although no protein-rich alveolar oedema could be documented.
P. berghei K173 in C57BL/6 mice has also been used as a model of ECM with early death after infection due to cerebral pathology [
25].
Plasmodium chabaudi AS-infected C57BL/6 mice develop very little lung oedema [
18]. However, a recent study showed that
P. chabaudi CB, a more virulent strain than
P. chabaudi AS, does cause lung oedema associated with pulmonary inflammation and cell death [
26].
Previously, a model for MA-ARDS was developed based on the infection of C57BL/6 mice with parasites of the NK65 strain of
P. berghei [
18]. This strain of
P. berghei does not cause ECM in C57BL/6 mice, but leads to lethal pulmonary inflammation with protein-rich interstitial and alveolar oedema. The incidence of pulmonary pathology in this mouse model is high as more than 90% of infected mice develop MA-ARDS. However, infection of C57BL/6 mice with parasites of the NK65 strain has also been documented by other groups without any mention of pulmonary pathology and with sometimes highly different parasitaemia kinetics [
27,
28]. Therefore, in this study it was investigated why these differences occur.
With mouse models of ECM, it is known that both parasite and host factors define the severity of disease. For example, parasites of the
P. berghei ANKA strain induce ECM in C57BL/6 mice whereas cerebral complications are absent in BALB/c mice [
29]. In rats, the age of the animal is an important factor in the development of cerebral complications with
P. berghei ANKA infections [
30]. Parasite factors also appear to play a role in ECM, since it has been demonstrated that various cloned lines derived from
P. berghei ANKA induced differences in the pathology of ECM [
29]. These differences in pathology emphasize the need for detailed data on the course of infections and disease in order to make a rational choice for certain parasite-host combinations. In contrast to ECM, less is known about lung disease in different mouse-parasite combinations.
In this study, the induction and severity of MA-ARDS in different mouse and parasite strains was analysed. This included comparisons of P. berghei NK65 infections in C57BL/6 versus BALB/c mice, as well as comparisons of infections with the two most commonly used lines of P. berghei NK65, the Edinburgh line (P. berghei NK65-E) and the New York line (P. berghei NK65-NY) in C57BL/6 mice. Furthermore, induction of MA-ARDS was compared between P. berghei NK65-infected C57BL/6 mice and P. berghei ANKA-infected DBA/2 mice. This study illustrates that, similar to ECM, both host and parasite genetics are important determinants of the induction and severity of MA-ARDS and that the lung pathology coincides with normocyte invasion. These data yield new insights into the pathogenesis and provide information for the choice of different mouse-parasite combinations to study MA-ARDS.
Methods
Ethical statement
All experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee from the KU Leuven (License LA1210186 Belgium) and by the Animal Experiments Committee of the Leiden University Medical Center (DEC 12120). The Dutch Experiments on Animal Act is established under European guidelines (EU directive no. 86/609/EEC regarding the Protection of Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes). All experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
Parasites and mice
Two different lines of the NK65 strain of
P. berghei were used.
1)
The ‘Edinburgh’ line of the NK65 strain (
P. berghei NK65-E). This line is a kind gift of the late Prof. Dr. D. Walliker (University of Edinburgh, UK) [
18]. The genome of a cloned line of this strain (1995cl2; RMgm-1115,
http://www.pberghei.eu) has been sequenced [
31]. This line has been used to generate the GFP-luciferase expressing line
P. berghei NK65-E 2168cl2 as previously described [
32] (Rmgm-4363;
http://www.pberghei.eu).
2)
The ‘New York’ line of the NK65 strain (
P. berghei NK65-NY). This line was a kind gift of Prof. R. Ménard (Institut Pasteur, Unité de Biologie et Génétique du Paludisme, Paris, France). The genome of a cloned line of
P. berghei NK65-NY has also been sequenced [
31]. This line has been used to generate a cloned line expressing GFP-luciferase (1556cl1; RMgm-4364,
http://www.pberghei.eu) that has been used in this study [
31,
33].
In addition, the sequenced reference line of
P. berghei ANKA (cl15cy1) was used [
31].
Male and female C57BL/6 mice were obtained from Janvier (7–8 weeks old, Le Genest-Saint-Isle, France). For the bioluminescence imaging experiments performed at the LUMC, female C57BL/6 (6–7 weeks old) from Charles River were used. Mice were infected with
P. berghei lines NK65-E, NK65-E 2168cl2, NK65-NY or
P. berghei ANKA by intraperitoneal (IP) injection of 10
4 infected RBCs [
18,
31,
32,
34].
Mice were kept in a conventional animal house and drinking water was supplemented with 4-amino benzoic acid (0.375 mg/ml PABA, Sigma-Aldrich, Bornem, Belgium). For the bioluminescence experiments performed at LUMC, 4-amino benzoic acid was added to the mouse diet. Mice were sacrificed at indicated time points after infection by euthanasia with Dolethal (Vétoquinol, Aartselaar, Belgium; 200 mg/ml, IP injection of 50 µl).
Determination of parasitaemia and reticulocytosis
A blood smear was taken at indicated time points and stained with Giemsa (1/10 dilution, VWR, Heverlee, Belgium) to obtain percentages of parasitaemia, reticulocytes and infected reticulocytes. Additionally, 1/500 diluted tail blood was counted using a Bürker chamber to obtain RBC concentrations, from which numbers of iRBCs, reticulocytes and infected reticulocytes per ml were calculated. Images of Giemsa-stained blood smears were taken at a magnification of 100 (100×/1.25 oil objective) with a Leica DM 2000 light microscope equipped with a DFC 295 camera (Leica Bond Max, Leica Microsystems, Diegem, Belgium).
For determination of parasitaemia by flow cytometry [
35], tail blood (10 µl) from infected mice was collected in 1 ml of complete culture medium and cells were fixed in 1 ml of a 0.25% (v/v) glutaraldehyde solution in PBS at 4 °C and kept at 4 °C until analysis. These samples were stained with the DNA-specific fluorescent dye Hoechst-33258 (2 µmol/l) for 1 h at 37 °C and analysed with a a FACScan (LSR II, Becton–Dickinson). The fluorescence intensity and size (Forward Scatter; FSC; Sideward Scatter, SSC) of 50,000 cells per sample were measured and data analysis was performed using the FlowJo software (FlowJo, LLC, Ashland, USA).
Quantification of lung pathology
Lung pathology was assessed by measuring the weights of unperfused small lungs and the protein and IgM concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). To obtain BALF, the small lungs were pinched off, 500 μl of PBS was instilled in the large lungs through the trachea with a catheter and withdrawn after 30 s. This was repeated and both lavages were pooled. The BALF was centrifuged (10 min at 335 g, 4 °C), the protein concentration of the supernatant was determined by Bradford assay (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA) and IgM concentrations were determined by ELISA (Jackson Immunoresearch, Newmarket, UK). Cell pellets were resuspended and leukocytes and erythrocytes were counted in a Bürker chamber. The RBCs were lysed by NH4Cl treatment (0.83% NH4Cl, 10 mM Tris/HCl, pH 7.2) and the leukocytes were further mounted onto cytospin slides (Thermo Shandon, Cheshire, UK), which were prepared and stained with Hemacolor (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany). The percentages of lymphocytes, monocytes/macrophages, and neutrophils were determined by microscopy analysis of the cytospin slides.
Determination of parasite accumulation in the lungs by luminescence imaging
Mice were IP injected with 10
4 of the parasite lines
P. berghei NK65-NY 1556cl1 and
P. berghei NK65-E 2168cl2. Both lines express the fusion protein GFP-luciferase. In vivo imaging of luminescence was used to determine the relative parasite accumulation in the lungs [
33]. Mice were anesthetized and received
d-luciferin (100 mg/kg, Caliper Life Sciences) subcutanously in the scruff, 2 min before full body imaging. Luciferase activity was determined using an IVIS Lumina II in vivo Imaging System (Perkin Elmer Life Sciences, Waltham, USA). Quantitative analysis of bioluminescence of whole bodies was performed by measuring the luminescence signal intensity using the region of interest (lungs) settings of the Living Image 4.4 software.
Determination of parasite accumulation in the lungs by qRT-PCR
After mechanical homogenization of the left lungs, total RNA was extracted (RNeasy mini kit, Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and quantified (Nanodrop, Thermo Fischer, Aalst, Belgium). cDNA was synthesized (High capacity cDNA reverse transcription kit, Thermo Fischer), and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) for mouse and parasite 18S was performed on 0.5 and 0.25 ng cDNA. The parasite 18S was determined with the following primer and probe sets, synthesized by Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT, Leuven, Belgium): TAACATGGCTTTGACGGGTAA (forward primer), TGCTGCCTTCCTTAGATGTG (reverse primer) and TCCGGAGAGGGAGCCTGAGAAATA (probe). P. berghei 18S data was normalized to the corresponding expression of the murine 18S RNA.
Scoring of disease progression
As described previously [
36], body weight, parasitaemia, and clinical parameters including spontaneous activity (SA), limb grasping (LG), body tone (BT), trunk curl (TC), pilo-erection (PE), shivering (Sh), abnormal breathing (AB), dehydration (D), incontinence (I) and paralysis (P) were evaluated daily to calculate a clinical score of disease severity. A disease score was given of 0 (absent) or 1 (present) for TC, PE, Sh and AB and 0 (normal), 1 (intermediate) or 2 (most serious) for the other parameters. The total clinical score was calculated by the following formula: SA + LG + BT + TC + PE + Sh + AB + 3 * (D + I + P). Mice were euthanized when humane endpoints were reached (clinical score of 15 or more) or at the indicated time points.
Determination of RBC turnover
Mice were injected intravenously with 100 µl Sulfo-NHS-biotin (EZ-link sulfo-NHS-LC-biotin, Thermo Scientific, Rockford, US) in PBS at 10 mg/ml, which results in rapid and efficient biotinylation of RBCs. At several times thereafter (at least 4 h), tail blood was collected, RBC were counted in a haemocytometer and subsequently labelled with streptavidin-APC (eBiosciences, CA, USA) and analysed by flow cytometry (FACSCalibur, Beckton Dickinson, Erembodegem, Belgium). Non-biotinylated blood was used as a negative control.
Statistical analysis
The Mann–Whitney U test was used to determine the statistical significance between two groups. Statistical analysis was done using the GraphPad Prism 7 software (GraphPad software, San Diego, USA). p-values smaller than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. p-values were defined as follows: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Occasional mice in which the parasite did not develop well (< 1% parasitaemia on day 9–10 post-infection (PI) for P. berghei NK65-E) were excluded. Unless otherwise specified, bars and curves represent the average with standard error of the mean. Asterisks without horizontal lines represent significant differences compared to the uninfected control group. Horizontal lines with asterisks on top indicate significant differences between groups.
Discussion
The development of MA-ARDS in mice appears highly dependent on both mouse and parasite strains. In the current study, it is shown that MA-ARDS develops with P. berghei NK65-E, whereas P. berghei NK65-NY causes only minor pulmonary oedema. Also, the genetic background of the host is crucial, as MA-ARDS develops in C57BL/6 mice but not in BALB/c mice. Furthermore, DBA/2 mice infected with P. berghei ANKA also develop lung pathology, but clearly to a lower degree as indicated by the lower alveolar oedema. The latter parasite-mouse combination results in lethality in only a fraction of the DBA/2 mice, whereas the other mice survive the transient phase of the lung pathology and develop hyperparasitaemia and anaemia later on.
The differential susceptibility of mouse strains to specific malaria complications is a common observation. It is well-known that
P. berghei ANKA-induced ECM develops quickly in C57BL/6 mice and CBA/J mice, whereas BALB/c and DBA/2 mice are resistant to this condition [
29,
43]. Infection of BALB/c with
Plasmodium yoelii XL is lethal, but the same parasite in DBA/2 mice is not lethal, causing a transient parasitaemia [
44]. Furthermore, infection of C57BL/6 or BALB/c mice with
P. chabaudi AS results in a transient parasitaemia wave together with limited liver pathology; however,
P. chabaudi AS causes lethal anaemia in A/J mice [
45‐
47]. Several genetic factors play a role in the susceptibility of the host to the parasite. In particular, a genetic background biased to more severe Th1 immune responses may be more prone to the development of Th1-mediated pathology. This is illustrated by the increased CD8
+ T cell activation and CXCR3 expression in C57BL/6 mice versu
s BALB/c mice, resulting in ECM in the C57BL/6 mice only [
43]. However, the timing and potency of the Th1 response can have differential effects depending on the infecting parasite. Whilst DBA/2 mice are resistant to the development of
P. berghei ANKA-induced cerebral pathology, a more potent Th1 response mounted to
P. yoelii results in a more efficient parasite control in DBA/2 mice compared to BALB/c mice [
44].
Differences between parasite strains and laboratory lines are crucial in determining the severity of malarial disease. Previous reports have highlighted differences in virulence between clones of
P. berghei ANKA for the induction of ECM [
29]. Also, several cloned lines of
P. chabaudi have been shown to induce different levels of anaemia and weight loss across several different murine backgrounds [
48,
49]. Of relevance to this study,
P. chabaudi CB is more virulent than
P. chabaudi AS and induces pulmonary pathology [
26]. Importantly, multiple passaging of parasites may affect their virulence, as was shown for
P. chabaudi AS [
50]. Prominent differences especially occur between parasites that were recently passaged through mosquitos and parasites that were passaged several times by blood transfer. The latter procedure enhances the virulence, and this appears to be related to a more restricted pattern of expression of the
pir multigene family [
51].
Here, it is shown that two laboratory lines of
P. berghei NK65 differed strikingly in terms of MA-ARDS induction. These lines presumably originate from one strain since it was isolated from a single infected mosquito [
37]. Most likely, the passaging of parasites of this strain in different laboratories has resulted in the pronounced phenotypic differences between
P. berghei NK65-E and
P. berghei NK65-NY. The genetic diversity between these two lines is limited, as determined by genome sequencing recently [
31]. However, these data suggested a more pronounced reticulocyte predilection of
P. berghei NK65-NY compared to
P. berghei NK65-E. Some
P. berghei NK65-NY parasites, including ring stages, were observed in normocytes at 7 days PI, suggesting that
P. berghei NK65-NY has the ability to invade normocytes. However, the replication in normocytes appeared inefficient as parasitaemias above 3% were only observed when sufficient numbers of reticulocytes were available. Furthermore, in vivo analysis of the RBC turn-over confirmed that only very few or no normocytes were destroyed by
P. berghei NK65-NY. This reticulocyte predilection was associated with the absence of lung pathology. The switch from infection of reticulocytes to normocytes is important for rapid and early increases in
P. berghei NK65-E parasitaemia, which coincides with the occurrence of pulmonary pathology.
P. berghei is known to have preference for invading reticulocytes versus normocytes [
52]. Interestingly, Hopp et al. [
53] described recently that berghepain-1 is a crucial protease for the infectivity of normocytes, as berghepain-1 knockout of
P. berghei ANKA was completely reticulocyte-restricted. The growth of this parasite was limited by the availability of reticulocytes, similar to the here described findings with
P. berghei NK65-NY, and could even be enhanced by treating the mice with phenylhydrazine, which results in RBC lysis and secondary reticulocytosis. Similarly, chloroquine-resistant
P. berghei ANKA is also reticulocyte-restricted and produces less haemozoin, explaining the decreased sensitivity to chloroquine [
54]. Plasmepsin-4/berghepain-2 double knockout parasites produce almost no haemozoin, are chloroquine-insensitive and are reticulocyte-restricted. They display a severe delayed growth phenotype and diminished ECM pathogenicity [
55]. Furthermore, induction of reticulocytosis by administration of erythropoietin is also protective in the
P. berghei ANKA model of cerebral malaria, although direct anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective actions of erythropoietin may be involved as well [
56‐
58]. Lastly, the importance of being a generalist in RBC invasion can be highlighted by
P. yoelii, as the non-lethality in the reticulocyte-invading XNL strain is contrasted with the lethal generalist XL strain [
59]. Here, it was found that MA-ARDS occurs in
P. berghei NK65-E infected C57BL/6 mice, when the parasite switches from invading mainly reticulocytes to invading mainly normocytes, and that the lung pathology in
P. berghei ANKA-infected DBA/2 mice resolves when the parasite switches from invading normocytes to invading reticulocytes. The reasons why infected reticulocytes appear less pathogenic than normocyte invasion are currently unknown and may include a lower content of pathogenic factors in infected reticulocytes compared to infected normocytes, or the induction of a disease-limiting response by infected reticulocytes but not by infected normocytes.
Altogether, these data suggest that distinct lines of the
P. berghei NK65 strain exist with completely different characteristics regarding the MA-ARDS pathology, and that the
P. berghei parasite is more pathogenic when it resides in normocytes compared to reticulocytes, even at similar parasitemia levels, iRBC load and distribution in different organs. This association between reticulocyte invasion and absence of lung pathology is in line with human infections, as MA-ARDS is relatively less lethal upon infection with the reticulocyte-restricted
P. vivax than with
P. falciparum [
9]. Future investigations are needed to clarify the mechanisms that underly the differences in MA-ARDS induced by different parasite lines. The data in this study emphasize the importance of choosing the correct mouse-parasite combinations to study mechanisms underlying MA-ARDS.
Authors’ contributions
LV, TP, HP, SK, EVH, JD, BF, TJL and PVDS performed the experiments. LV, TP, HP, SK, EVH, JD, BF, CJ and PVDS analysed the data. TJL, CJJ, GO and PVDS conceived the study. LV, TP, HP and PVDS wrote the first drafts of the manuscript. All authors critically read and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.