The Journal of infectious diseases
October 1, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Afucosylated VAR2CSA-Specific IgG Reduces Risks of Placental Malaria.
Ding H, Lloyd Williams OH, Saeed M, +12 more, Rogerson SJ.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Afucosylated IgG against VAR2CSA was linked to protection from placental malaria.
What was studied
Study of 139 malaria-exposed pregnant Malawian women measuring VAR2CSA-specific IgG afucosylation by FEASI and mass spectrometry, plus functional assays with plasma and a monoclonal antibody.
Key findings
- Women without placental malaria had significantly higher VAR2CSA-specific IgG afucosylation.
- Afucosylated IgG activated NK cells and neutrophils.
Clinical relevance
This identifies an antibody feature that could inform vaccines or antibody therapies for pregnancy-associated malaria.
Who should care
Limitations
It is a correlative association, and the abstract omits effect sizes so causation cannot be established.
No practice change; continue standard malaria prevention in pregnancy while this informs future products.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Background
Antibody Fc regions have important roles in clearance of Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes. One such role is engagement with Fcγ receptors on host leukocytes. In the case of FcγRIIIa and b, this interaction is greatly enhanced when the IgG glycan is afucosylated.
Methods
In this study, we used a fucose-sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (FEASI) to assess afucosylation in IgG specific for placental malaria protein VAR2CSA from n = 139 malaria-exposed pregnant Malawian women, correlating these data with mass spectrometry-based analysis. Furthermore, we measured the effect of afucosylation on Fc-mediated leukocyte functions, using both plasma and a monoclonal antibody, PAM2.8, with varying levels of afucosylation.
Results
There were significantly higher levels of VAR2CSA-specific IgG afucosylation in women with no placental malaria measured by FEASI (P < .0001), which correlated strongly with mass spectrometry analysis (R = 0.8, P < .0001). In addition, highly afucosylated IgG mediated significantly greater neutrophil phagocytosis of antigen-coated beads and induction of NK cell degranulation by infected erythrocytes.
Conclusions
Afucosylated IgG to VAR2CSA, measured by FEASI or mass spectrometry, was a correlate of protection from placental malaria, and afucosylated IgG activated NK cells and neutrophils. Naturally acquired or therapeutic afucosylated IgG antibody could have a role in protection from malaria infection.
DOI
10.1093/infdis/jiag344
PMID
42446379
PMCID
PMC13668340
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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