Fig 1. MHV68 co-infection with the non-lethal P. yoelii XNL in C57BL/6 results in lethal malarial disease and suppressed Plasmodium specific IgG response.
(A) Timeline of infection. 6–8 week old C57BL/6 mice were infected with 1000 PFU of MHV68 on day -7 followed by infection with 105pRBCs of non-lethal P. yoelii XNL or P. chabaudi AS. Infections consisted of 5 experimental groups: MHV68 + Plasmodium, Plasmodium, MHV68 or mock infected. Each experimental group consisted of n = 5 and was repeated twice. Animals were sacrificed at days 8, 12, 16 and 23 post P. yoelii XNL infection or day 7, 11, 15 and 23 post P. chabaudi AS infection for collection of spleen, lung and blood. (B) Survival analysis of animals co-infected with MHV68 and P. yoelii XNL or P. chabaudi AS. Total IgG and IgM levels in serum in (C) P. yoelii XNL (Day 23 IgG—P. yoelii vs co-infected: p<0.05 Mann Whitney U-test) or (D) P. chabaudi AS co-infection model (Day 11 IgG—P. chabaudi vs co-infected: p<0.05 Mann Whitney U-test). Parasite specific IgG levels in serum during (E) P. yoelii XNL (day 23 post infection, P. yoelii vs co-infected: p<0.05 Mann Whitney U-test) or (F) P. chabaudi AS (day 11 post infection, P. chabaudi vs co-infected: p<0.05 Mann Whitney U-test) co-infection.