It has been shown that malaria pigment in the placenta is associated with the maturation of cord blood myeloid and plasmocytoid DCs (innate immune cells triggered by TLR7/8 agonists [11, 30]), which may explain why cytokine responses to TLR7/8 stimulation were significantly enhanced in past PM (as well as in chronic PM, although with modest significance possibly due to the smaller sample size) compared to the other PME categories. This evidence concerns the gene TLR7 and malaria.