Last Updated: 12/12/2024
Establishment of an optimized in vitro screening platform for evaluation of antimalarial compounds against liver stages including hypnozoites of Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale using field isolated parasites
Objectives
The aim of this proposal is to develop an optimal assay to screen against liver stages including their hypnozoites of malaria relapsing species using field settings in Mali and Ethiopia.
This objective will be achieved through:
- Develop a field experimental infection platform of Anopheles spp with P. vivax and P. ovale in Ehtiopia and Mali for routine production of sporozoites.
- Establish an in vitro optimized malaria liver stage infection platform in Mali for biological characterization and drug evaluation against hepatic stages including hypnozoites using field isolated sporozoites from P. vivax and P. ovale infected mosquitoes.
University of Sciences Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), Mali
Screen against P. vivax, P. ovale and their hypnozoites entails major biological and logistical obstacles limiting studies toward the development of new compounds. These include lack reliable and practical continuous culture model for P. vivax and P. ovale blood stages and these species are only accessible from the field. A further critical limitation is the absence of an optimized in vitro screen platform that enables specific and rapid screen against hypnozoite, as a consequence of these limitations, most of the compounds against malaria have originated from high throughput screens on the asexual blood stage of P. falciparum, a malaria parasite that does not form hypnozoites; or on animal model(s) of hypnozoite such as P. cynomolgi in macaques and P. vivax in Aotus monkeys, which are expensive and have very low throughput with major ethical restriction.
Longitudinal and cross-sectional study.
Jan 2018 — Dec 2019
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