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Clinical Microbiology Reviews, October 2007, p. 579-592, Vol. 20, No. 4
0893-8512/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CMR.00027-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Plasmodium malariae: Parasite and Disease
William E. Collins* and
Geoffrey M. Jeffery
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector Borne and Enteric Diseases, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Chamblee, Georgia 30341, and U.S. Public Health Service, Atlanta, Georgia

SUMMARY
A review of the life history of Plasmodium malariae, the quartan
malaria parasite of humans, is presented. Much of the information
is based on data obtained from induced infections in humans
who were given malaria therapy for the treatment of neurosyphilis
between 1940 and 1963. Prepatent periods (i.e., the time until
the first day of parasite detection) fever episodes, and maximum
parasitemias as a result of infection with P. malariae were
obtained and are presented. Experimental and known vectors of
the parasite are also discussed. Splenectomized chimpanzees
and New World monkeys are readily infected and serve as sources
of parasites and antigens for diagnostic and molecular studies.
South American monkeys are naturally infected with a parasite
known as Plasmodium brasilianum. This parasite appears to be
P. malariae that has adapted from humans to grow in monkeys,
probably within the last 500 years. Infection with P. malariae
is associated with the production of immune complexes in the
kidneys and the associated nephrotic syndrome. The essential
lesions are a thickening of the glomerular basement membrane
and endocapillary cell proliferation. Studies of monkeys infected
with P. malariae indicate the same pathology as that demonstrated
in humans.

INTRODUCTION
Plasmodium malariae is a malaria parasite that causes a disease
that has been recognized since the Greek and Roman civilizations
over 2,000 years ago. Quartan, tertian, and semitertian patterns
of fever in patients were described by the early Greeks. After
the discovery by Alphonse Laveran in 1880 (
75) that the causative
agent for malaria was a parasite, detailed studies on these
organisms commenced. The early detailed work of Golgi in 1886
demonstrated that in some patients there was a relationship
between the 72-hour life cycle of development of the parasites
and a similar periodicity of the paroxysm (chill and fever pattern
in the patient), whereas in other patients there were 48-hour
cycles of development (
54). He came to the conclusion that there
must be more than one species of malaria parasite responsible
for these different patterns of cyclical infection.
Eventually, the different parasites were separated and given the names that they carry at the present time. In 1890, Grassi and Feletti (58) reviewed the available information and named P. malariae and P. vivax with the following statement: "C'est pour cela que nous distinguons, dans le genre Haemamoeba, trois espèces (H. malariae de la fièvre quarte, H. vivax de la fièvre tierce et H. praecox de la fièvre quotidienne avec coutres intermittences etc.)." The current name for the parasite that we discuss here is Plasmodium malariae (Grassi and Feletti 1890).

LIFE HISTORY
Plasmodium malariae has developmental cycles in the mosquito
and in the primate host (
20). When gametocytes are ingested
during mosquito feeding, a process called exflagellation of
the microgametocyte occurs, resulting in the formation of up
to eight mobile microgametes. Following fertilization of the
macrogamete, a mobile ookinete is formed, which penetrates the
peritropic membrane surrounding the blood meal and travels to
the outer wall of the midgut of the
Anopheles mosquito. There,
under the basal membrane, the oocyst develops. After a period
of 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the temperature, many hundreds
to a few thousand sporozoites are produced within each oocyst.
The oocyst ruptures and the sporozoites are released into the
hemocoel of the mosquito. The sporozoites are carried by the
circulation of the hemolymph to the salivary glands, where they
become concentrated in the acinal cells. During feeding, a small
number of sporozoites (<100) are introduced into the salivary
duct and injected into the venules of the bitten human, to initiate
the cycle in the liver.
In the human, following introduction into the bloodstream, the sporozoites rapidly invade the liver within an hour, where, within a parenchymal cell, the parasite matures in approximately 15 days. Eventually many thousands of merozoites are produced in each schizont. Upon release, these merozoites invade erythrocytes and initiate the erythrocytic cycle. There is no evidence of quiescent liver stage forms (hypnozoites) such as are found in P. vivax and P. ovale infections in humans. However, not all liver stage forms will mature on the same day; biopsies indicate that these forms may rupture and release parasites over a number of days. Following a developmental cycle in the erythrocyte that lasts, on average, for 72 h, from 6 to 14 (average, 8) merozoites are released to reinvade other erythrocytes. Some of the merozoites develop into the two forms of gametocytes (micro- and macrogametocytes). When they are taken into the mosquito during feeding, the cycle is repeated.
Human Host
Prepatent period.
There are only a limited number of reports on the transmission
of
P. malariae to humans to determine prepatent periods. The
prepatent period is defined as the time until the first day
that parasites are detected on a thick blood film. Shute and
Maryon (
104) reported the shortest prepatent period of 16 days
for a West African strain. Boyd and Stratman-Thomas (
10) reported
prepatent periods of 27, 32, and 37 days for two different strains,
and Mer (
86) transmitted a Palestinian strain to three patients,
in whom the periods were 26, 28, and 31 days. Prepatent periods
of 23 and 26 days were reported by de Buck (
42) for four patients
infected with a Vienna strain, and Boyd and Stratman-Thomas
(
12) reported 28- and 40-day prepatent periods. Marotta and
Sandicchi (
81) reported incubation periods (days until symptoms
first appeared) of 23 and 29 days in two patients. Boyd (
9)
reported on three different strains for which prepatent periods
ranged from 28 to 37 days. Siddons (
107) reported a prepatent
period of 30 days, and Young and Burgess (
120) reported prepatent
periods of 29 and 59 days. Mackerras and Ercole (
79) reported
a 24-day period for a Melanesian strain, and Kitchen (
72) reported
a mean prepatent period of 32.2 days (range, 27 to 37 days)
for American strains of
P. malariae. Young and Burgess (
121)
transmitted the USPHS strain of
P. malariae to patients, and
the prepatent periods were 33 and 36 days. Ciuca et al. (
18)
reported prepatent periods for the Romanian VS strain ranging
from 18 to 25 days. Lupascu et al. (
78) reported incubation
periods of 18 to 19 days for the VS strain; in four additional
patients the prepatent period ranged from 21 to 30 days (
48).
In transmission studies with a Nigerian strain involving four
volunteers, the prepatent periods ranged from 24 to 33 days
(
40). Thus, as these data show, there is a wide range in the
length in the prepatent period in mosquito-transmitted
P. malariae (16 to 59 days).
Fever.
The most detailed study of the paroxysm of P. malariae is probably that by Young et al. (123) in which they examined 420 paroxysms. The average fever peak was 104.1°F (rectally), with the highest recorded being 106.4°F. Fevers (
101°F) ranged in duration from 5 to 32 h, with an average of 10 h 58 min. Some fevers were introduced by chills, while others were not.
A retrospective examination of induced infections with P. malariae was made by McKenzie et al. (83). These data were extracted from the records of patients who were given malaria therapy for the treatment of neurosyphilis between 1940 and 1963. Prior to the introduction of penicillin for the treatment of syphilis, malaria was one of the most effective treatments for the disease (118). It was estimated that perhaps 20% of patients in U.S. mental hospitals had neurosyphilis (62), and infection with P. vivax or P. malariae was standard practice in the treatment of the disease. Plasmodium falciparum was less commonly used because of the difficulty of controlling infections with this species of parasite. It was believed that a combination of repeated episodes of high-intensity fever combined with a nonspecific stimulation of the immune system induced by the malaria parasite combined to destroy the spirochete. Because most African American patients were resistant to infection with P. vivax (due to the Duffy negative blood grouping), they were most often treated with P. malariae.
A listing of the days of fever of
101°F and
104°F and the maximum fevers for 69 of the patients examined by McKenzie et al. (83) with no known previous malaria infection who were allowed to have parasitemia of P. malariae for 60 or more days is presented in Table 1. For these patients, the median number of days of fever of
101°F was 21.9 and the median number of days of fever of
104°F was 10.2. The median maximum fever for the 69 patients was 105.6°F. One patient (S-1112) failed to exhibit fever of
101°F in spite of a maximum parasite count of 4,100/µl. Fever often occurred on an every-third-day pattern, as shown in Fig. 1. It is also apparent that the fever occurred just prior to an increased parasite count associated with release of a new population of parasites. Because fever regularly occurs again on the fourth day in many patients, P. malariae infections are often referred to as being "quartan" malaria.
Parasitemia.
Maximum parasite counts are usually low compared to those in
patients infected with
P. falciparum or
P. vivax. This is due
to several factors: (i) the lower number of merozoites produced
per erythrocytic cycle, (ii) the extended 72-hour developmental
cycle versus the 48-hour cycle of
P. vivax and
P. falciparum,
(iii) the preference of the parasite to developed in older erythrocytes,
and (iv) the combination of these factors that allows for the
earlier development of immunity by the human host. In the 69
patients (Table
1), the maximum parasite count ranged from 1,648/µl
to 49,680/µl, with a median count of 8,875/µl (10,000/µl
= 0.25% of erythrocytes infected). Some patients had long periods
of parasitemia and extended periods when parasite counts were
>1,000/µl. These patients averaged 50.5 days with parasite
counts of >1,000/µl. When the parasite counts for these
patients were averaged for the first 40 days of patent parasitemia
(Fig.
2), it was apparent that the parasite count peaked at
approximately 2 weeks and then remained relatively stable. The
median parasite count actually did not begin to decline until
60 days or more of patent parasitemia.
Other patients in the data studied by McKenzie et al. (
83) had
been infected with
P. malariae following previous infection
with other species of malaria parasites. Forty-six patients
were infected following infection with
P. falciparum (Table
2). The maximum parasite counts ranged from 312/µl to
29,825/µl, with the median being 6,608/µl. The length
of parasitemia was shorter, and there were fewer days with parasite
counts of >1,000/µl. The ratio between the number of
days of fever of

101°F to

104°F was almost identical
to that for patients with no previous infection. In addition,
39 patients had been infected with
P. malariae following infection
with
P. vivax (Table
3). The maximum parasite counts ranged
from 424/µl to 19,624/µl, with a median of 9,250/µl.
Only eight patients were infected with
P. malariae following
infection with
P. ovale (Table
4). The median maximum parasite
count was 13,575/µl.
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TABLE 2. Parasite counts and fever for 46 patients infected with Plasmodium malariae following previous infection with P. falciparuma
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TABLE 3. Parasite counts and fever for 39 patients infected with Plasmodium malariae following previous infection with P. vivaxa
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TABLE 4. Parasite counts and fever for eight patients infected with Plasmodium malariae following previous infection with P. ovalea
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Recrudescence.
Plasmodium malariae does not relapse from persistent liver stage
parasites. However, the blood stage parasites persist for extremely
long periods, often, it is believed, for the life of the human
host. There have been many reports of people who have left zones
of endemicity and, either following donation of blood in which
the recipient developed an infection or under stress, whose
infections have recrudesced after many years of dormancy. For
example, Collins et al. (
33) reported on a transfusion case
in which the donor had probably acquired infection with
P. malariae in China 50 years previously. Vinetz et al. (
116) report a case
of an infection acquired in Greece over 40 years (and possibly
up to 70 years) previous to splenectomy and subsequent diagnosis.
Because almost all of these long-term infections have been detected
following transfusion donations, it is believed that the parasites
have persisted in the blood at very low densities.
Preerythrocytic Stages
The preerythrocytic tissue stages develop in the liver following
the introduction of sporozoites. The time required for maturation
and release of merozoites from the mature schizonts to invasion
of erythrocytes is approximately 15 days. The tissue stages
of
P. malariae were first described by Bray (
13,
14) in liver
biopsy specimens from sporozoite-inoculated chimpanzees. The
host cell nucleus was enlarged and pushed to one side. In over
50% of the parasitized parenchymal cells, two or more nuclei
were present. He was able to describe the 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-,
12-, and 12.5-day-old forms. The nuclei were always randomly
distributed; there were no pseudocytomeres, no evidence of septum
formation or plasmotomy, and no mature schizonts at these time
points.
Lupascu et al. (77) obtained biopsy material from a chimpanzee at 12, 13, 14, and 15 days after introduction of sporozoites of P. malariae. The schizonts were considered mature at 15 days. The main characteristics were enlargement of the host cell nucleus, many peripheral and internal vacuoles, no cytomeres, large clefts, red-staining strands, and plaques in the mature schizonts.
Millet et al. (87) reported the development of preerythrocytic stages of P. malariae in cultures of hepatocytes from chimpanzees and Aotus lemurinus griseimembra monkeys. Schizonts were observed in chimpanzee hepatocytes at 8, 11, and 13 days after inoculation of sporozoites. Only one schizont was seen in Aotus hepatocytes at day 13.
Mosquito Host
Many different vectors have been shown to be capable, at least
experimentally, of infection with this parasite. These are listed
in Table
5. Those that have been proven to be capable of transmitting
P. malariae to humans experimentally are also indicated. The
development of
P. malariae in mosquitoes has been described
by a number of workers; the first definitive studies were carried
out by Shute and Maryon (
105) on its development in
Anopheles atroparvus mosquitoes. In the studies of Collins et al. (
38)
with
Anopheles freeborni, when incubated at a temperature of
25°C, sporozoites were present in the salivary glands in
17 days. At day 6, the mean oocyst diameter was 12 µm,
with a range of 9 to 14 µm. The oocysts continued to grow
so that by day 14 they ranged from 20 to 65 µm, with a
mean of 38 µm. Early differentiation and formation of
sporozoites were apparent by day 14 (Fig.
3).

DISTRIBUTION
In general, the distribution of
P. malariae coincides with that
of
P. falciparum. In areas of endemicity in Africa, infections
of
P. malariae are mixed with
P. falciparum infections. In many
instances, the presence of
P. malariae infections is unapparent
unless PCR techniques are used to reveal low-level or subpatent
infections.
Plasmodium malariae is wide spread throughout sub-Saharan
Africa, much of southeast Asia, into Indonesia, and on many
of the islands of the western Pacific. It is also reported in
areas of the Amazon Basin of South America, along with
Plasmodium brasilianum, a parasite commonly found in New World monkeys.
This parasite is apparently the same species as
P. malariae that has naturally adapted to grow in monkeys following human
settlement of South America within the last 500 years. In the
recent past,
P. malariae was prevalent in Europe and in southern
parts of the United States.

LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS
Diagnosis of
P. malariae infection is preferentially made by
the examination of peripheral blood films stained with Giemsa
stain. PCR techniques are now routinely used in many laboratories
to confirm diagnoses and to separate mixed infections. Recently,
in southeast Asia it has been shown that infections with the
monkey malaria parasite
Plasmodium knowlesi in humans have been
misdiagnosed as being infections with
P. malariae (
68,
108).
Identification was confirmed by PCR. Thus, careful microscopic
examination may not be sufficient for positive confirmation
in certain situations where monkey malaria parasites such as
P. knowlesi or
P. inui may be transmitted to humans. In areas
of South America where humans and monkeys coexist, it is impossible
to differentiate infections of
P. malariae from infections of
P. brasilianum because they may, in fact, be one and the same.
The first stages that appear in the blood are the ring stages that are formed by the invasion of merozoites released by rupturing liver stage schizonts. As described by Coatney et al. (Fig. 4) (20), these grow slowly but soon occupy one-fourth to one-third of the parasitized cell. Pigment increases rapidly, and the half-grown parasite may have from 30 to 50 jet-black granules. As the parasite grows, it assumes various shapes, and it often stretches across the host cell to form what is known as the band form. These are often considered diagnostic, although they are sometimes seen in other species. The host cell is not enlarged as the parasite grows to fill the infected erythrocyte.
At about the 54th hour, segmentation begins, and by the 65th
hour, the host cell is nearly filled and the parasite contains
five or six chromatin masses; pigment is scattered. The nuclei
and cytoplasm begin to separate, and the pigment becomes segregated
and clumped in a loose mass in the center of the cell surrounded
by the more or less symmetrically arranged merozoites. The number
of merozoites may be from 6 to 14, but the average number is
8.
The mature macrogametocyte has a dense, deeply staining blue cytoplasm with a small red-staining nucleus. The pigment is scattered. The parasite completely fills the host cell. The cytoplasm of the adult microgametocyte has a light bluish pink stain. The pigment is limited to the cytoplasm of the parasite. The nucleus is diffuse, takes a pinkish-blue stain, and may occupy half the infected cell. The parasite appears to occupy the entire host cell. Ordinarily, microgametocytes outnumber the macrogametocytes.
Snounou et al. (109) applied the nested PCR technique to the diagnostic identification of all four human-infecting species of Plasmodium, using genus- and species-specific primers targeting the 18S rRNA gene. Failure to detect some P. malariae infections has prompted alteration of the species-specific primers for this parasite.
Recent efforts have been directed towards the development of real-time PCR assays. Rougemonet et al. (97) used a set of generic primers targeting a highly conserved region of the 18S rRNA genes of the four human-infecting species of Plasmodium to develop such an assay, which was highly specific and sensitive.
McNamara et al. (85) described a PCR/ligase detection reaction fluorescent-microsphere assay for the diagnosis of infection levels with all four species of human malaria, which shows promise for the detection of minority species in infections with mixed Plasmodium species.
Preservation
The preservation of viable malaria parasites by freezing made
possible the study of these organisms without continuous cyclical
passage. In 1955, Jeffery and Rendtorff (
67) reported the frozen
preservation of blood stages of
P. malariae. Blood stages were
stored for 20 and 60 days at a temperature of –70°C.
The frozen preservation of
P. malariae-infected erythrocytes
has now become routine. Once the infections were established
in chimpanzees and New World monkeys, subsequent infections
were most frequently induced by the injection of parasitized
erythrocytes that had been stored frozen over liquid nitrogen,
often after many years of storage. Parasites are usually stored
in Glycerolyte (Baxter Healthcare Corp., Fenwal Div., Deerfield,
IL) and are expected to be viable for decades when held at extremely
low temperatures over liquid nitrogen. Thick and thin blood
films for immunofluorescence studies and teaching can be stored
unfixed and frozen for extended periods. However, frozen blood
is unsuitable for the preparation of blood films for microscopic
diagnosis.

SEROLOGIC STUDIES
Serologic tests are not specific enough for diagnostic purposes
but are basic epidemiologic tools. They allow for the measurement
of past exposure to infection. The immunofluorescent-antibody
(IFA) technique has been used to measure the presence of antibodies
to
P. malariae. It was shown that when an infection was of short
duration, the response soon declined. However, if the parasite
count recrudesced or reinfection occurred, the IFA response
rose to a higher lever and persisted for many months or years,
as shown in Fig.
5 (
27). Cross-reaction studies indicated that
P. brasilianum, the monkey malaria parasite from South American
monkeys that appears to be identical to
P. malariae, could be
used in serologic testing (
26).
Plasmodium fieldi, a parasite
of macaques from southeast Asia, also cross-reacted strongly
with
P. malariae (
26). In a serologic study of 498 sera collected
from Nigerians, 43.2% had positive responses to
P. brasilianum (
35). The response was low in children but was equal to that
to
P. falciparum with sera from individuals 13 years of age
and older. In a study of a jungle aboriginal area in Malaysia,
there was an almost complete absence of
P. malariae infection
during a parasitologic survey, whereas historically the incidence
was known to be quite high (
38). The high incidence of maximum
IFA responses (51%) to
P. malariae, however, was probably more
indicative of the malarial experience or of subpatent parasitemia
than the slide survey because of recent drug interventions (
38).
The structure of the circumsporozoite (CS) gene of
P. malariae was first described by Lal et al. (
74). Serologic studies were
subsequently conducted for responses to CS proteins of
P. malariae by using the CS repeat (NAAG)
5 in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA). In a study in Asembo Bay, Kenya, 59% of persons
had antibodies to the peptide; all positivity rates increased
with age (
43). In a seroepidemiologic study conducted on Indian
tribes in the Amazon Basin of northern Brazil, Arruda et al.
(
41) found that almost all Metuktire and almost 90% of the Asurini
adults had antisporozoite antibodies against
P. brasilianum/P. malariae. A monoclonal antibody specific for the repeat epitope
of the CS protein of
P. malariae was developed to detect sporozoites
in infected mosquitoes (
22). The (NAAG)
5 ELISA has also been
used extensively. Beier et al. (
7), for example, identified
3.2% of infected
Anopheles gambiae sensu lato and
A. funestus mosquitoes collected in western Kenya as being infected with
P. malariae. This has proven to be a valuable epidemiologic
tool in identifying potential vectors of
P. malariae.

MOLECULAR STUDIES
Cochrane et al. (
21) produced a hybridoma secreting a monoclonal
antibody against the CS protein of
P. malariae (Uganda I/CDC
strain). A two-dimensional electrophoretic assay showed that
the CS protein recognized by the monoclonal antibody contains
a repetitive epitope. The antibody also reacted strongly with
sporozoites of the simian parasite
P. brasilianum but did not
bind to sporozoites of
P. falciparum, P. vivax, and
P. ovale.
Monoclonal antibodies specific for a repeat epitope of the CS
protein of
P. malariae sporozoites were then used to develop
a two-site, single-antibody-based ELISA to detect sporozoites
in mosquitoes (
22). The major repeat was determined to be Asn
Ala Ala Gly (NAAG), with two different minor repeats, Asn Asp
Ala Gly (NDAG) and Asn Asp Gln Gly (NDEG). In a study in Cameroon,
the length of the CS protein gene varied due to the number of
tandem repeat units (
115).
A gene encoding the small-subunit rRNA of P. malariae was sequenced and shown to contain unique regions that could be used as diagnostic probes (55). Studies indicated a variant form in the small-subunit rRNA gene sequence in the Sichuan province of China and along the Thai-Myanmar border, by deletion of 19 bp and seven substitutions of base pairs in the target sequence (76). Thus, there appear to be two different types or potentially two subspecies of P. malariae, based on molecular differences in Asian parasites.
There are few genomic data on this parasite. Studies on the gene encoding cytochrome b from the linear mitochondrial genome indicated that P. malariae was separate from other members of the primate-infecting Plasmodium species (46). Plasmodium inui and P. malariae do not form a monophyletic group, demonstrating that periodicity is convergent in the evolution of the genus.

INFECTIONS IN CHIMPANZEES AND MONKEYS
Attempts to infect Old World monkeys have been unsuccessful.
The first adaptation of
P. malariae to New World monkeys was
reported by Geiman and Siddiqui (
49). Additional studies were
made with different species of
Aotus and
Saimiri monkeys (
23,
28,
32,
33,
34,
36). In splenectomized
Aotus monkeys, maximum
parasite counts with
P. malariae varied markedly, from 10 to
56,800/µl. Parasitemia often persisted for many weeks;
recrudescence occurred, and mosquito infection was readily obtained
(Fig.
6). The median maximum parasite count depended on the
previous heterologous malarial experience of the animals. When
18
Aotus monkeys with no previous history of infection were
infected with
P. malariae, the median maximum parasite count
was 13,760/µl. In 29 monkeys that had been previously
infected with
P. falciparum, the median maximum parasite count
was 6,270/µl. In 46 monkeys that had been previously infected
with
P. vivax, the maximum parasite count with
P. malariae was
1,488/µl. Following the infection of 49 animals that had
been previously infected with both
P. vivax and
P. falciparum,
the median maximum parasite count with
P. malariae was only
899/µl. Splenectomized
Saimiri boliviensis monkeys had
maximum parasite counts that varied from 62/µl to 22,134/µl.
Splenectomized chimpanzees were shown by Rodhain (
95) and Garnham
et al. (
48) to be readily infected. Bray (
14) observed parasite
counts in splenectomized animals of between 25,000 and 50,000
per µl, and Garnham et al. (
48) observed a maximum parasite
count of 160,000 per µl. In a study with 31 splenectomized
chimpanzees with various previous histories of infection with
P. vivax and
P. ovale, maximum parasite counts following inoculation
with a strain of
P. malariae from Uganda ranged from 930 to
75,700 per µl (
29). Infections were infective to a variety
of mosquito species on more than 50% of the days on which they
were fed. In most instances, infection was obtained when the
parasite count was rising and diminished as soon as the count
peaked.
In 1920, Reichenow (91) studied malarias in chimpanzees and gorillas in the Cameroons and found P. malariae. Blacklock and Adler (8) in 1922 in Sierra Leone and Schwetz (100, 101, 102) in the Belgian Congo also saw P. malariae in these animals. In 1939, Brumpt (15) gave the name P. rodhaini to the quartan parasite that infected chimpanzees and gorillas. However, subsequent transmission studies with quartan parasites isolated from chimpanzees convinced investigators that this parasite was actually P. malariae (92, 93, 94, 96).

PATHOLOGY
Watson in 1905 (
117) noted the presence of edema in a patient
with malaria in Malaysia, and subsequently the relationship
between
P. malariae infection and the nephrotic syndrome has
been well documented. Many investigators (
9,
51,
52,
53,
110)
indicated a close relationship between quartan malaria and renal
disease. Hendrikse and Adeniyi (
60) described the clinico-pathological
features associated with infection with
P. malariae and suggested
that immune complexes may cause structural glomerular damage.
Dixon (
44) demonstrated immune complexes in the kidneys of patients
with nephrotic syndrome associated with quartan malaria.
The essential lesions are a thickening of the glomerular basement membrane and endocapillary cell proliferation (61, 71). This gives rise to a double-contour or plexiform arrangement of periodic acid-Schiff stain-positive, argyrophilic fibrils (45, 61, 119). As the disease progresses, more capillaries become affected, and the lesions extend to cause progressive narrowing and eventually complete obliteration of capillary lumens.
Electron microscopy shows thickening of the glomerular basement membrane with an increase in the basement membrane-like material of varying density in the subendotherial zone (2). Hendrickse et al. (61) graded the severity of pathological changes based on the percentage of glomeruli showing lesions. If patients had up to 30% of glomeruli showing lesions, they responded to therapy. However, if they had greater than that, they did not show a response to therapy. The renal disease tended to become chronic and nonresponsive to treatment with antimalarial and immunosuppressive drugs.
Aikawa et al. (1) examined the kidneys of Aotus monkeys infected with P. malariae and demonstrated that the nephrotic syndrome seen in monkeys was consistent with that seen in humans. Histologically, glomeruli of these monkeys infected with P. malariae showed thickening and reduplication of the basement membrane and endocapillary cell proliferation. Electron microscopy revealed electron-dense deposits in the subendothelial and mesangial areas. The changes were consistent with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, similar to that of humans infected with P. malariae.

ULTRASTRUCTURE
Ultrastructural studies have also been made on the erythrocytic
stages of
P. malariae and on the oocyst and sporozoite stages
in the mosquito. Atkinson et al. (
4) indicated that
P. malariae was morphologically indistinguishable and structurally similar
to other primate malaria species. There were highly structured
arrays of merozoite surface coat proteins in the cytoplasm of
early schizonts and on the surface of budding merozoites. Knobs
were present in the membranes of Maurer's clefts. Morphological
evidence suggested that proteins are transported between the
erythrocyte surface and intracellular parasites via two routes:
one associated with Maurer's clefts for transport of membrane-associated
knob material and a second associated with caveolae in the host
cell membrane for the import or export of host- or parasite-derived
substances through the erythrocyte cytoplasm.
Nagasawa et al. (90) used immunoelectron microscopy and a monoclonal antibody for the CS protein of P. malariae to determine ultrastructural localization of this protein in midgut oocysts and salivary gland sporozoites. The CS protein was found along the capsule of immature oocysts but rarely within the cytoplasm. It was detected on the inner surface of peripheral vacuoles during oocyst maturation and on the plasma membrane of the sporoblast. Salivary gland sporozoites and sporozoites in mature oocysts were labeled uniformly on the outer surfaces of their plasma membranes. Antibodies against P. brasilianum CS protein reacted with P. malariae sporozoites.

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER SPECIES
Malaria parasites of primates are organized based on biologic
characteristics.
Plasmodium brasilianum, the monkey-infecting
malaria parasite of South America, probably is an adaptation
of
P. malariae to New World primates with the introduction of
Old World humans to the New World. The adaptation probably occurred
within the last 500 years with the introduction of large numbers
of people from Africa, where
P. malariae was prevalent. The
chronic nature of the parasite easily allowed for its survival
in the human host during transit to the New World. The ready
passage of
P. brasilianum to humans and the passage of
P. malariae to New World monkeys indicated that such interspecies transmission
between primates and humans is both feasible and probable.
In southeast Asia, the other complex of parasites with a 72-hour developmental cycle in the blood of the primate host is Plasmodium inui. This parasite is also experimentally transmissible to humans (19). Whether or not such transmission occurs in nature has not been demonstrated. However, monkeys are commonly found to be infected with P. inui in close proximity to humans, and many different mosquito vectors are capable of transmitting the parasite to humans. Morphologically, it would be difficult to separate infections with monkey malaria parasites such as P. knowlesi and P. inui from those with P. malariae, particularly if reliance on a thick blood film diagnosis was made. This is illustrated in Fig. 7, which shows the blood stages of P. malariae, P. inui, and P. knowlesi. Neither of the erythrocytes that are infected with trophozoites of these parasites shows cellular enlargement or prominent stippling. Initial examination of the blood film, if from a human, would have immediately ruled out infection with P. vivax and P. ovale, both of which result in enlargement of the host cell erythrocyte and prominent stippling, or with P. falciparum, which rarely exhibits mature forms in the peripheral blood. Thus, the diagnostician would be left with P. malariae as the probable diagnosis. Only the proximity of monkeys would have suggested a secondary examination by PCR or subpassage to susceptible monkeys to confirm infection with a Plasmodium species other than P. malariae.
There is no molecular evidence suggesting that
P. malariae is
closely related to any of the other primate malaria parasites
that have been thus far examined (except
P. brasilianum).
Plasmodium malariae and
P. brasilianum are either the same species or variants
of the same species.
Plasmodium malariae appears to represent
an independent colonization of humans by malaria parasites (
46).
However, there is no indication of a close relationship to other
primate-infecting species of
Plasmodium, and the evolutionary
origin of the species is unclear.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector Borne and Enteric Diseases, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Chamblee, GA 30341. Phone: (770) 488-4077. Fax: (770) 488-4253. E-mail:
wec1{at}cdc.gov 

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Clinical Microbiology Reviews, October 2007, p. 579-592, Vol. 20, No. 4
0893-8512/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CMR.00027-07
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