TY - JOUR
T1 - Modulation of transmission success of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes (sexual stages) in various species of Anopheles by erythrocytic asexual stage parasites
AU - Kumar, Nirbhay
N1 - Funding Information:
I wish to acknowledge discussions with my former colleagues during the initial stages of the work supported by the technical staff of the “Parasite and Mosquito Core” of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. I wish to also acknowledge NIAID intramural malaria program for kind supply of An. freeborni mosquitoes for reported studies. Partial financial support from NIH grants NIH RO1 AI47089 and AI127544 is also acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - During malaria infection, a small proportion of erythrocytic asexual stages undergo sexual differentiation. Male and female gametocytes ingested in the blood meal initiate the sexual development of malaria parasites in the mosquito midgut. During blood feeding on a host, a mosquito ingests, in addition to mature gametocytes, host immune factors present in the blood, as well as large excess of erythrocytic asexual stages. In the current study we addressed the impact of the presence of large excess of asexual stages, hitherto not known or even suspected to influence, on the infectivity of gametocytes in the mosquito. Asexual stages resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of infectiousness of gametocytes, and some of this could be explained by the presumed effect of hemozoin and other unknown asexual-stage components on the mosquito immune system, affecting survival and maturation of parasites in the mosquito midgut. Interactions between asexual and sexual stages, maturity and ratio of male and female gametocytes, host immune factors and mosquito innate immune factors are some of the variables that determine the infectiousness of gametocytes in the mosquitoes and ultimately malaria transmission success. Understanding of determinants affecting malaria transmission will be critical to approaches directly targeting the transmission process for malaria elimination.
AB - During malaria infection, a small proportion of erythrocytic asexual stages undergo sexual differentiation. Male and female gametocytes ingested in the blood meal initiate the sexual development of malaria parasites in the mosquito midgut. During blood feeding on a host, a mosquito ingests, in addition to mature gametocytes, host immune factors present in the blood, as well as large excess of erythrocytic asexual stages. In the current study we addressed the impact of the presence of large excess of asexual stages, hitherto not known or even suspected to influence, on the infectivity of gametocytes in the mosquito. Asexual stages resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of infectiousness of gametocytes, and some of this could be explained by the presumed effect of hemozoin and other unknown asexual-stage components on the mosquito immune system, affecting survival and maturation of parasites in the mosquito midgut. Interactions between asexual and sexual stages, maturity and ratio of male and female gametocytes, host immune factors and mosquito innate immune factors are some of the variables that determine the infectiousness of gametocytes in the mosquitoes and ultimately malaria transmission success. Understanding of determinants affecting malaria transmission will be critical to approaches directly targeting the transmission process for malaria elimination.
KW - Malaria transmission
KW - Mosquitoes
KW - Oocyst
KW - Ookinete
KW - Zygote
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U2 - 10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.08.027
DO - 10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.08.027
M3 - Article
C2 - 28859956
AN - SCOPUS:85028502231
SN - 0001-706X
VL - 176
SP - 263
EP - 269
JO - Acta Tropica
JF - Acta Tropica
ER -