Complement receptor 1 is the human erythrocyte receptor for Plasmodium vivax erythrocyte binding protein

Seong-Kyun Lee, Cécile Crosnier, Paola Carolina Valenzuela-Leon, Brian L P Dizon, John P Atkinson, Jianbing Mu, Gavin J Wright, Eric Calvo, Karthigayan Gunalan, Louis H Miller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The discovery that Africans were resistant to infection by Plasmodium vivax ( P. vivax) led to the conclusion that P. vivax invasion relied on the P. vivax Duffy Binding Protein (PvDBP) interacting with the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) expressed on erythrocytes. However, the recent reporting of P. vivax infections in DARC-negative Africans suggests that the parasite might use an alternate invasion pathway to infect DARC-negative reticulocytes. To identify the parasite ligands and erythrocyte receptors that enable P. vivax invasion of both DARC-positive and -negative erythrocytes, we expressed region II containing the Duffy Binding-Like (DBL) domain of P. vivax erythrocyte binding protein (PvEBP-RII) and verified that the DBL domain binds to both DARC-positive and -negative erythrocytes. Furthermore, an AVidity-based EXtracelluar Interaction Screening (AVEXIS) was used to identify the receptor for PvEBP among over 750 human cell surface receptor proteins, and this approach identified only Complement Receptor 1 (CR1, CD35, or C3b/C4b receptor) as a PvEBP receptor. CR1 is a well-known receptor for P. falciparum Reticulocyte binding protein Homology 4 (PfRh4) and is present on the surfaces of both reticulocytes and normocytes, but its expression decreases as erythrocytes age. Indeed, PvEBP-RII bound to a subpopulation of both reticulocytes and normocytes, and this binding was blocked by the addition of soluble CR1 recombinant protein, indicating that CR1 is the receptor of PvEBP. In addition, we found that the Long Homology Repeat A (LHR-A) subdomain of CR1 is the only subdomain responsible for mediating the interaction with PvEBP-RII.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2316304121
Number of pages7
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume121
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

© 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Keywords

  • Humans
  • Plasmodium vivax
  • Receptors, Cell Surface
  • Erythrocytes
  • Reticulocytes
  • CD2 Antigens
  • Cell Adhesion Molecules
  • Malaria, Falciparum

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