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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 7, Issue 6 (Suppl)
J Clin Exp Pathol, an open access journal
ISSN:2161-0681
Digital Pathology 2017
November 15-16, 2017
November 15-16, 2017 San Antonio, USA
2
nd
International Conference on
Digital Pathology & Image Analysis
Pathology of placental malaria in
Plasmodium knowlesi
infected Olive baboons (
Papio anubis
)
Faith I Onditi
Institute of Primate Research, Kenya
P
lacental malaria (PM) causes adverse pregnancy outcomes in the mother and her foetus. It is difficult to study PM directly
in humans due to ethical challenges. This study set out to bridge this gap by determining the outcome of PM in non-immune
baboons in order to develop a non-human primate model for the disease. Ten pregnant baboons were acquired late in their
third trimester (day 150) and randomly grouped as seven infected and three non-infected. Another group of four nulligravidae
(non-pregnant) infected was also included in the analysis of clinical outcome. Malaria infection was intravenously initiated by
Plasmodiumknowlesi
blood-stage parasites through the femoral veinon 160
th
day of gestation (for pregnant baboons). Peripheral
smear, placental smear, haematological samples, and histological samples were collected during the study period. Findings in
this study demonstrates the pathophysiology of placental malaria in non-immune baboons. Gross patholog presented similar
features to human placentas. Placental parasitaemia was on average 19-fold higher than peripheral parasitaemia in the same
animal. Placental damage and infiltration of immune cells was directly associated with
P. knowlesi
infection and subsequent
sequestration in the baboon placenta. Therefore, our findings compare with key feature of placental
falciparum
malaria in
humans. This presents the baboon as a new model for the characterization of malaria during pregnancy.
Biography
Faith I Onditi is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Primate Research, Department of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Malaria program. She holds
a PhD in Biochemistry (Reproductive Immunology) from University of Nairobi and a Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine. Her research interest is in the
development of baboon (
Papio anubis
)-
Plasmodium knowlesi
animal model for placental malaria, validating and utilizing the model in testing potential vaccines and
drug candidates against malaria in pregnancy. She has published 6 papers in peer reviewed journals and has presented her work in 12 conferences.
faith@primateresearch.orgFaith I Onditi, J Clin Exp Pathol 2017, 7:6 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0681-C1-043