Antigenic Variation in Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Involves a Highly Structured Switching Pattern (original) (raw)
Figure 4
Effects of switching pattern on malaria infection dynamics.
Simulating malaria infections in the naïve host, here shown as parasitaemia levels of the various antigenic variants under two different assumptions about the nature of switching, does not reveal major qualitative differences between random and preferential switching (A and B, respectively). However, a marked increase in infection length, as measured in multiples of a single variant infection, can be observed once switching is more structured (C). Shown are the median (blue bars) and lower and upper quartiles of 500 model realisations.