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Updated: May 25, 2026

Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response
Published on: January 12, 2017
Epithelial nitration by a peroxidase/NOX5 system mediates mosquito antiplasmodial immunity
Giselle de Almeida Oliveira1, Joshua Lieberman, Carolina Barillas-Mury
1Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Rockville, MD 20892, USA.
Abstract:
Plasmodium ookinetes traverse midgut epithelial cells before they encounter the complement system in the mosquito hemolymph. We identified a heme peroxidase (HPX2) and NADPH oxidase 5 (NOX5) as critical mediators of midgut epithelial nitration and antiplasmodial immunity that enhance nitric oxide toxicity in Anopheles gambiae. We show that the two immune mechanisms that target ookinetes-epithelial nitration and thioester-containing protein 1 (TEP1)-mediated lysis-work sequentially, and we propose that epithelial nitration works as an opsonization-like system that promotes activation of the mosquito complement cascade.

