Mini-Review J Mol Genet Med (August 2005), 1(1), 5-10 doi: jmgm Published online: 28 July 2005 Full Text: (html | pdf ~228kb | refs) Polymorphism of the Fc gamma receptor IIA and malaria morbidity Érika Martins Braga †, Kézia Katiani Gorza Scopel †, Natália Tiemi Komatsu ‡, Mônica da Silva-Nunes ‡ and Marcelo Urbano Ferreira ‡* † Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av Antônio Carlos 6627, Pampulha, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil *Correspondence to: Marcelo Urbano Ferreira, Email: muferrei@usp.br, Tel: + 55 11 30917273, Fax: + 55 11 30917417 Received: 10 June 2005, Revised: 11 July 2005, Accepted: 11 July 2005 © Copyright The Authors ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Fc receptors (FcRs) are expressed on the surface of all types of cells of the immune system. They bind the Fc portion of immunoglobulin (Ig), thereby bridging specific antigen recognition by antibodies with cellular effector mechanisms. Fc gamma RIIA, one of the three receptors for human IgG, is a low-affinity receptor for monomeric IgG, but binds IgG immune complexes efficiently. Fc gamma RIIA is believed to play a major role in eliciting monocyte- and macrophage-mediated effector responses against blood-stage malaria parasites. A G to A single nucleotide polymorphism, which causes an arginine (R) to be replaced with histidine (H) at position 131, defines two allotypes which difer in their avidity for complexed human IgG 2 and IgG 3. Because Fc gamma RIIA-H131 is the only Fc gamma R allotype which interacts efficiently with human IgG 2, this polymorphism may determine whether parasite-specific IgG 2 may or may not elicit cooperation with cellular imune responses during blood-stage malaria infection. Here, we review data from four published case-control studies describing associations between Fc gamma RIIA R/H131 polymorphism and malaria-related outcomes and discuss possible reasons for some incongruities found in these available results. KEYWORDS: malaria, Fc receptors, polymorphism, IgG subclasses, case-control studies ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy | Disclaimer |