Evaluation of the antibody response to Anopheles salivary antigens as a potential marker of risk of malaria

The evaluation of human immune responses to arthropod bites may be a useful marker of exposure to vector-borne diseases, with applications to malaria, the most serious parasitic infection in humans. The specific antibody (Ab) IgG response to saliva obtained from Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes was evaluated in young children from an area of seasonal malaria transmission in Senegal. Specific IgG was higher in children who developed clinical Plasmodium falciparum malaria within the 3 months that followed than in those who did not (P