↓ Skip to main content

Plasmodium falciparum EPCR-binding PfEMP1 expression increases with malaria disease severity and is elevated in retinopathy negative cerebral malaria

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medicine, October 2017
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (77th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (52nd percentile)

Mentioned by

twitter
13 X users
f1000
1 research highlight platform

Citations

dimensions_citation
42 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
103 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Plasmodium falciparum EPCR-binding PfEMP1 expression increases with malaria disease severity and is elevated in retinopathy negative cerebral malaria
Published in
BMC Medicine, October 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12916-017-0945-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Estela Shabani, Benjamin Hanisch, Robert O. Opoka, Thomas Lavstsen, Chandy C. John

Abstract

Expression of group A and the A-like subset of group B Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is associated with severe malaria (SM). The diversity of var sequences combined with the challenges of distinct classification of patient pathologies has made studying the role of distinct PfEMP1 variants on malaria disease severity challenging. The application of retinopathy in the recent years has provided a further method to clinically evaluate children with cerebral malaria (CM). The question of whether children with clinical CM but no retinopathy represent a completely different disease process or a subgroup within the spectrum of CM remains an important question in malaria. In the current study, we use newly designed primer sets with the best coverage to date in a large cohort of children with SM to determine the role of var genes in malaria disease severity and especially CM as discriminated by retinopathy. We performed qRT-PCR targeting the different subsets of these var genes on samples from Ugandan children with CM (n = 98, of whom 50 had malarial retinopathy [RP] and 47 did not [RN]), severe malarial anemia (SMA, n = 47), and asymptomatic parasitemia (AP, n = 14). The primers used in this study were designed based on var sequences from 226 Illumina whole genome sequenced P. falciparum field isolates. Increasing severity of illness was associated with increasing levels of endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR)-binding PfEMP1. EPCR-binding PfEMP1 transcript levels were highest in children with combined CM and SMA and then decreased by level of disease severity: RP CM > RN CM > SMA > AP. The study findings indicate that PfEMP1 binding to EPCR is important in the pathogenesis of SM, including RN CM, and suggest that increased expression of EPCR-binding PfEMP1 is associated with progressively more severe disease. Agents that block EPCR-binding of PfEMP1 could provide novel interventions to prevent or decrease disease severity in malaria.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 103 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 103 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 19%
Researcher 13 13%
Student > Bachelor 11 11%
Student > Master 10 10%
Student > Postgraduate 6 6%
Other 14 14%
Unknown 29 28%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 15 15%
Immunology and Microbiology 14 14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 13 13%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 9 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 5%
Other 13 13%
Unknown 34 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 July 2018.
All research outputs
#4,065,738
of 23,577,654 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medicine
#2,060
of 3,569 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#71,924
of 326,930 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medicine
#20
of 42 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,654 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 82nd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,569 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 44.5. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 326,930 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 42 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its contemporaries.