Fig. 4.

Malarial DNA is coated with HZ; the activity of HZ as an inducer of TLR9 is due to malaria DNA. (A) PCR was performed by using 3.5 nmol of natural HZ or 25 ng of genomic DNA as template. Plasmodium-specific primers (P. falciparum, P. spp), human-specific primers (TLR7, TRAM), or mouse-specific primers (CD14) were tested in the absence or presence of template as indicated in the table. Note that the presentation of the data required reorganization of digital images; the original gels can be seen as SI Fig. 5. (B) FL-DCs from WT mice were stimulated with 32, 75, and 150 μM natural HZ (red X symbols) or purified genomic DNA (black squares) mixed with DOTAP. The x axis of the HZ data has been aligned to also indicate its content of genomic DNA. After 24 h, supernatants were analyzed by ELISA.