The cell biology of malaria infection of mosquito: advances and opportunities

Abstract

Recent reviews (Feachem et al.; Alonso et al.) have concluded that in order to have a sustainable impact on the global burden of malaria, it is essential that we knowingly reduce the global incidence of infected persons. To achieve this we must reduce the basic reproductive rate of the parasites to < 1 in diverse epidemiological settings. This can be achieved by impacting combinations of the following parameters: the number of mosquitoes relative to the number of persons, the mosquito/human biting rate, the proportion of mosquitoes carrying infectious sporozoites, the daily survival rate of the infectious mosquito and the ability of malaria-infected persons to infect mosquito vectors.This paper focuses on our understanding of parasite biology underpinning the last of these terms: infection of the mosquito. The article attempts to highlight central issues that require further study to assist in the discovery of useful transmission-blocking measures.

Maternally supplied S-acyl-transferase is required for crystalloid organelle formation and transmission of the malaria parasite

“…In the mosquito midgut, the gametes mate to form a zygote that develops further into the motile ookinete. After crossing the midgut epithelium and establishing a sessile oocyst, the ookinete gives rise to thousands of sporozoites capable of infecting a subsequent mammalian host (1).…”

Pathogen-insect interaction candidate molecules for transmission-blocking control strategies of vector borne diseases

“…16 The bacterial population increases hundreds of times and may stimulate the mosquito's immune response, which includes the production of AMP, ROS and nitric oxide (NO). 16 Plasmodium gametocytes transform to gametes and fertilization produces mobile ookinetes that interact with the insect midgut molecules, invade, and establish the infection on the midgut outer surface 17 ( figure 1). The interacting parasite and midgut molecules are the basis for transmission blocking vaccines (TBV), which aim at inducing host antibodies against molecules critical for parasite development and vector-parasite interactions.…”

Discovering New Transmission-Blocking Antimalarial Compounds: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Gametocytes are highly specialized cells, very different to the asexual pathogenic stages [6]. In P. vivax, gametocytes require only a slightly longer time to develop than that required for asexual stages to complete their multiplication cycle.…”

“…bone marrow) during development and only mature stage V gametocytes circulating in the blood stream where they can be transmitted to mosquitoes [8]. After the stochastic, epigenetically driven [9][10][11][12] gametocyte conversion rate of ~1% of the asexual population [6], the immature stage I-III gametocytes are to some extent biochemically more aligned to asexual parasites than their stage V partners [8] whose metabolism effectively decreases to only retain household activities such as ATP production and redox maintenance [13]. This raises unique issues in the identification of drugs active on P. falciparum gametocytes, and specifically on the mature stage V forms, compared for instance to those of P.…”