Transcriptomic Profiling of Blood-Stage Plasmodium falciparum in Children with Severe Malarial Anemia

Children under five years of age residing in holoendemic Plasmodium falciparum transmission regions are the most vulnerable to malaria, accounting for vast majority of cases and mortality. The major clinical manifestation of severe malaria in these children is severe malarial anemia [SMA, hemoglobin (Hb)<6.0 g/dL].

The molecular mechanisms underlying SMA pathogenesis, particularly the contribution to this disease process of P. falciparum gene activities at transcriptomic levels, remain largely unexplored. As such, the overall objective of the study was to profile the blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum transcriptome in children with SMA. To achieve this goal, we performed RNAseq on total RNA from peripheral blood samples of 60 pediatric malaria patients (3-36 months) with non-SMA (Hb≥6.0 g/dL, n=40) and SMA (n=20) at enrollment.