Targeting circulating labile heme as a defense strategy against malaria

Abstract

Severe presentations of malaria emerge as Plasmodium (P.) spp. parasites invade and lyse red blood cells (RBC), producing extracellular hemoglobin (HB), from which labile heme is re-leased. Here, we tested whether scavenging of extracellular HB and/or labile heme, by haptoglobin (HP) and/or hemopexin (HPX), respectively, counter the pathogenesis of severe presentations of malaria. We found that circulating labile heme is an independent risk factor for cerebral and non-cerebral presentations of severe P. falciparum malaria in children. Labile heme was negatively correlated with circulating HP and HPX, which were, however, not risk factors for severe P. fal-ciparum malaria. Genetic Hp and/or Hpx deletion in mice led to labile heme accumulation in plasma and kidneys, upon Plas-modium infection. This was associated with higher incidence of mortality and acute kidney injury (AKI) in ageing but not adult Plasmodium-infected mice, and was corroborated by an in-verse correlation between heme and HPX with serological markers of AKI in P. falciparum malaria. In conclusion, HP and HPX act in an age-dependent manner to prevent the patho-genesis of severe presentation of malaria in mice and pre-sumably in humans.