Interferons and Interferon Regulatory Factors in Malaria

Table 4

Diverse roles of different IRFs in malaria infection.

	Host; /model	Infection	Functions	Ref.
IRF-1	Human	P. falciparum	Controls parasitemia	[123]
			Not involved in development of severe malaria	[124]
	Mice	Py nigeriensis N67 iRBCs	Plays a role in IFN-I signaling	[85]
		PbA iRBCs	Involved in ECM development; Controls parasitemia	[69]
			Involved in ECM development; Promotes parasitemia	[125]
			Regulates production of IFN-𝛾 and IL12p4; Controls CD8^+ T cells numbers	[72]
			Plays a role in ECM development	[70, 95]
	Ex vivo	AT-rich oligonucleotides	No effect on IFN-𝛽 production by splenocytes	[61]
IRF-3	Mice	P. yoelii sporozoite	Mediates IFN-I-induced innate response during liver-stage infection	[126]
		P. chabaudi iRBCs	Mediates splenic IFN-𝛼, but not IFN-𝛽, transcription in red pulp macrophages	[90]
			Not involved in IFN-I production	[110]
IRF-5	Ex vivo	AT-rich oligonucleotides	Not involved in IFN-𝛽 production by splenocytes	[61]
IRF-7	Mice	Py nigeriensis N67 iRBCs	Plays a role in IFN-I signaling	[85]
		PbA iRBCs	Plays a role in ECM development	[70, 71]
		P.chabaudi iRBCs	Mediates splenic IFN-I transcription in red pulp macrophages	[90]
			Involved in IFN-I production	[110]
IRF-3 and IRF-7	Mice	PbA sporozoite	Mediate IFN-I response in liver-stage infection; Control parasite load in the liver	[92]
		PbA iRBCs	Involved in ECM development	[61]
	Ex vivo	AT-rich oligonucleotides	Mediate IFN-𝛽 production by splenocytes
		Pf iRBCs	Mediate IFN-𝛽 production by macrophages
IRF-8	Mice	PbA iRBCs	Plays a role in ECM development	[95]
			Regulates production of proinflammatory cytokines; Mediates IFN-I production; Controls antigen processing and presentation and chemotaxis	[72]
IRF-9	Mice	Py nigeriensis N67 iRBCs	Plays a role in IFN-I signaling	[85]
		PbA iRBCs	Plays a role in ECM development	[72]