New Delhi, April 25 || US researchers have uncovered the role of Plasmodium falciparum -- a parasitic protozoan that causes malaria -- in the development of Burkitt lymphoma (BL), the most common childhood cancer.
BL is a cancer that affects B cells -- an important cell of the immune system that produces antibodies. It has been associated with P. falciparum malaria since 1958, but the underlying mechanism of how this leads to cancer has remained a mystery.
While BL is a rare cancer globally, (found more in equatorial Africa and New Guinea) its prevalence is 10 times higher in areas with a consistent presence of P. falciparum malaria.
Five different species of Plasmodium can cause malaria in humans, but only P. falciparum is associated with BL.
“Knowing that malaria has a direct role in increasing childhood cancer risk means that measures to reduce the burden of P. falciparum malaria could also reduce the incidence of Burkitt lymphoma,” said Dr. Rosemary Rochford, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.
The study, published in The Journal of Immunology, found significant elevated expression of an enzyme called AID (activation-induced cytidine deaminase) in B cells during P. falciparum malarial infection in children.