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Transmission-blocking interventions eliminate malaria from laboratory populations.

ABSTRACT: Transmission-blocking interventions aim to reduce the prevalence of infection in endemic communities by targeting Plasmodium within the insect host. Although many studies have reported the successful reduction of infection in the mosquito vector, direct evidence that there is an onward reduction in infection in the vertebrate host is lacking. Here we report the first experiments using a population, transmission-based study of Plasmodium berghei in Anopheles stephensi to assess the impact of a transmission-blocking drug upon both insect and host populations over multiple transmission cycles. We demonstrate that the selected transmission-blocking intervention, which inhibits transmission from vertebrate to insect by only 32%, reduces the basic reproduction number of the parasite by 20%, and in our model system can eliminate Plasmodium from mosquito and mouse populations at low transmission intensities. These findings clearly demonstrate that use of transmission-blocking interventions alone can eliminate Plasmodium from a vertebrate population, and have significant implications for the future design and implementation of transmission-blocking interventions within the field.

SUBMITTER: Blagborough AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3674233 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Transmission-blocking interventions eliminate malaria from laboratory populations.

Blagborough A M AM Churcher T S TS Upton L M LM Ghani A C AC Gething P W PW Sinden R E RE

Nature communications 20130101

Transmission-blocking interventions aim to reduce the prevalence of infection in endemic communities by targeting Plasmodium within the insect host. Although many studies have reported the successful reduction of infection in the mosquito vector, direct evidence that there is an onward reduction in infection in the vertebrate host is lacking. Here we report the first experiments using a population, transmission-based study of Plasmodium berghei in Anopheles stephensi to assess the impact of a tr ...[more]

PMID: 23652000

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Drugs and vaccines that can interrupt the transmission of Plasmodium falciparum will be important for malaria control and elimination. However, models for early clinical evaluation of candidate transmission-blocking interventions are currently unavailable. Here, we describe a new model for evaluating malaria transmission from humans to Anopheles mosquitoes using controlled human malaria infection (CHMI). METHODS:Seventeen healthy malaria-naive volunteers underwent CHMI by intravenous inoculation of P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes to initiate blood-stage infection. Seven to eight days after inoculation, participants received piperaquine (480 mg) to attenuate asexual parasite replication while allowing gametocytes to develop and mature. Primary end points were development of gametocytemia, the transmissibility of gametocytes from humans to mosquitoes, and the safety and tolerability of the CHMI transmission model. To investigate in vivo gametocytocidal drug activity in this model, participants were either given an experimental antimalarial, artefenomel (500 mg), or a known gametocytocidal drug, primaquine (15 mg), or remained untreated during the period of gametocyte carriage. RESULTS:Male and female gametocytes were detected in all participants, and transmission to mosquitoes was achieved from 8 of 11 (73%) participants evaluated. Compared with results in untreated controls (n = 7), primaquine (15 mg, n = 5) significantly reduced gametocyte burden (P = 0.01), while artefenomel (500 mg, n = 4) had no effect. Adverse events (AEs) were mostly mild or moderate. Three AEs were assessed as severe - fatigue, elevated alanine aminotransferase, and elevated aspartate aminotransferase - and were attributed to malaria infection. Transaminase elevations were transient, asymptomatic, and resolved without intervention. CONCLUSION:We report the safe and reproducible induction of P. falciparum gametocytes in healthy malaria-naive volunteers at densities infectious to mosquitoes, thereby demonstrating the potential for evaluating transmission-blocking interventions in this model. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02431637 and NCT02431650. FUNDING:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Project description:BackgroundThe combined effects of multiple density-dependent, regulatory processes may have an important impact on the growth and stability of a population. In a malaria model system, it has been shown that the progression of Plasmodium berghei through Anopheles stephensi and the survival of the mosquito both depend non-linearly on parasite density. These processes regulating the development of the malaria parasite within the mosquito may influence the success of transmission-blocking interventions (TBIs) currently under development.MethodsAn individual-based stochastic mathematical model is used to investigate the combined impact of these multiple regulatory processes and examine how TBIs, which target different parasite life-stages within the mosquito, may influence overall parasite transmission.ResultsThe best parasite molecular targets will vary between different epidemiological settings. Interventions that reduce ookinete density beneath a threshold level are likely to have auxiliary benefits, as transmission would be further reduced by density-dependent processes that restrict sporogonic development at low parasite densities. TBIs which reduce parasite density but fail to clear the parasite could cause a modest increase in transmission by increasing the number of infectious bites made by a mosquito during its lifetime whilst failing to sufficiently reduce its infectivity. Interventions with a higher variance in efficacy will therefore tend to cause a greater reduction in overall transmission than a TBI with a more uniform effectiveness. Care should be taken when interpreting these results as parasite intensity values in natural parasite-vector combinations of human malaria are likely to be significantly lower than those in this model system.ConclusionsA greater understanding of the development of the malaria parasite within the mosquito is required to fully evaluate the impact of TBIs. If parasite-induced vector mortality influenced the population dynamics of Plasmodium species infecting humans in malaria endemic regions, it would be important to quantify the variability and duration of TBI efficacy to ensure that community benefits of control measures are not overestimated.

Project description:BackgroundTransmission-blocking interventions (TBIs) aim to eliminate malaria by reducing transmission of the parasite between the host and the invertebrate vector. TBIs include transmission-blocking drugs and vaccines that, when given to humans, are taken up by mosquitoes and inhibit parasitic development within the vector. Accurate methodologies are key to assess TBI efficacy to ensure that only the most potent candidates progress to expensive and time-consuming clinical trials. Measuring intervention efficacy can be problematic because there is substantial variation in the number of parasites in both the host and vector populations, which can impact transmission even in laboratory settings.MethodsA statistically robust empirical method is introduced for estimating intervention efficacy from standardised population assay experiments. This method will be more reliable than simple summary statistics as it captures changes in parasite density in different life-stages. It also allows efficacy estimates at a finer resolution than previous methods enabling the impact of the intervention over successive generations to be tracked. A major advantage of the new methodology is that it makes no assumptions on the population dynamics of infection. This enables both host-to-vector and vector-to-host transmission to be density-dependent (or other) processes and generates easy-to-understand estimates of intervention efficacy.ResultsThis method increases the precision of intervention efficacy estimates and demonstrates that relying on changes in infection prevalence (the proportion of infected hosts) alone may be insufficient to capture the impact of TBIs, which also suppress parasite density in secondarily infected hosts.ConclusionsThe method indicates that potentially useful, partially effective TBIs may require multiple infection cycles before substantial reductions in prevalence are observed, despite more rapidly suppressing parasite density. Accurate models to quantify efficacy will have important implications for understanding how TBI candidates might perform in field situations and how they should be evaluated in clinical trials.

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Transmission-blocking interventions eliminate malaria from laboratory populations.

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Transmission-blocking interventions eliminate malaria from laboratory populations.

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