Malaria gametocytes – seeds of dispersion

A major challenge for malaria control and elimination is the phenomenally efficient spread of malaria through sexual stage malaria parasites (gametocytes). The epidemiology and dynamics of gametocytes are poorly understood: it is presently unknown when gametocytes are first produced, when malaria-infected individuals are first capable of transmitting their infection to mosquitoes and what parasite and human factors influence these processes. This study hypothesize that malaria-infected individuals can transmit malaria to mosquitoes before malaria symptoms occur and that the responsible gametocytes are produced immediately upon infection. It further hypothesize that human immune factors play an important role in defining the human infectious reservoir for malaria. The researcher will longitudinally collect blood samples and determine infectivity to mosquitoes in two Gambian cohorts naturally exposed to malaria. In these cohorts, the team will quantify malaria parasite life stages by novel molecular assays and use antibody profiling to measure human factors related to transmissibility. This is the first study to comprehensively characterize gametocyte commitment, maturation and infectivity in natural infections. This proposed research will provide urgently needed insights in one of the most important questions for malaria elimination: what processes are responsible for the highly efficient transmission of malaria from man to mosquito.

Project details

Enabling Technologies & Assays
Immunology

Nov 2015

The Gambia
The Netherlands