Plasma Interleukin?10:Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)–? Ratio Is Associated with TNF Promoter Variants and Predicts Malarial Complications

Abstract

In individuals with severe malarial anemia, plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)—α tend to exceed those of interleukin (IL)—10. In this study, IL-10:TNF plasma level ratios 1 (P = .008). In contrast, individuals with a mutation at position −238 of the TNF promoter (TNF^−238A and TNF^{−376A/−238A}) consistently had lower IL-10 than TNF plasma levels (IL-10:TNF ratio P = .003). Our results show that, in children with severe malaria, TNF promoter variants influence the balance of IL-10:TNF in the plasma, which, in turn, affects the outcome in terms of clinical complications.