Pregnancy-associated malaria: Effects of cytokine and chemokine expression

Malaria remains a serious public health problem. Malaria caused 409,000 deaths in 2019, and 67% were children under 5 years old. Malaria-infected mothers exhibit several complications, including babies with low birth weight, stillbirth, preterm delivery, poor fetal intrauterine growth and maternal anemia. This review aims to provide an update on the immune response in pregnant women and the role of cytokines and chemokines in modulating immunity after infection by the Plasmodium parasite.

This review collects information from articles indexed in the main databases associated with malaria in pregnancy and its relationship with the immune response and cytokines.

and Discussion: The most influential event in malaria pregnancies for pathology development is placental sequestration. During the gestation period, an imbalance in the immune response due to the over- and under-expression of cytokines promotes high rates of fetal mortality, miscarriage, maternal anemia, and low birth weight. In addition, hormones, parity, gestational age, and age of the mother are risks associated with malaria severity during pregnancy.

The pathology of malaria pregnancy is dependent on factors such as cytokine imbalances, placental sequestration and hormones, parity, gestational age and age of the mother. Thus, a better understanding of immune mechanisms will provide information to improve results for disease treatment.