Innate immune sensing of Plasmodium sporozoite cell traversal drives protective T cell responses.

Cell traversal by Plasmodium sporozoites triggers innate immune responses essential for protective T cell activation, with 100% dependence on cell wounding signals.

• Why it matters: Understanding how attenuated sporozoites stimulate innate immunity is crucial for improving malaria vaccines, as the mechanisms behind their strong immune responses are not well known.
• What they did: The study isolated GFP+ Plasmodium berghei and Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites and analyzed their interaction with mouse macrophages and human immune cells using bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, focusing on cell traversal effects.
• The result: Cell traversal-deficient sporozoites failed to activate immune cells and impair CD8+ T cell priming, revealing that parasite-induced cell wounding, independent of inflammasome or Toll-like receptor pathways, is vital for eliciting protective immunity.