TRANSRESPAR - Characterization of field malaria isolates and assessment of the impact of resistance profile on the transmission of resistant strains
Project Abstract
This is a joint research project between Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH, Switzerland) and Ifakara Health Institute (IHI, Tanzania). Malaria elimination is threatened by resistance to current insecticides and antimalarials. Developing novel technologies that target malaria transmission, such as transmission blocking drugs, vaccines or insecticides to control malaria has gained wide attention in recent years, however, this has been done using laboratory reared parasites.
There is therefore a need for these tools and novel technologies to be evaluated using field malaria parasites, in order to provide a more realistic representation of malaria transmission occurring in natural settings.
We will establish a continuous culture protocol for field malaria parasite isolates and characterize the parasites at a molecular level, including genetic diversity and drug resistance profile. Additionally, the field isolates will also enable a continuous supply of gametocytes for year-round evaluation of transmission blocking interventions. Second, we will evaluate the effect of insecticides like chlorfenapyr on the development of field malaria parasites in mosquitoes using a bioassay developed at IHI. The transmission of drug resistant isolates from patients will be investigated to assess the impact of resistance mutations on the production of gametocytes and subsequent transmission to the mosquito vector using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), established at IHI.
