Mosquito Infectivity and Parasitemia after Controlled Human Malaria Infection

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2018 Jun;98(6):1705-1708. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.17-0952. Epub 2018 Apr 26.

Abstract

Controlled Human Malaria Infection (CHMI) has become an increasingly important tool for the evaluation of drugs and vaccines. Controlled Human Malaria Infection has been demonstrated to be a reproducible model; however, there is some variability in time to onset of parasitemia between volunteers and studies. At our center, mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium falciparum by membrane feeding have variable and high salivary gland sporozoite load (mean 78,415; range 26,500-160,500). To determine whether this load influences parasitemia after CHMI, we analyzed data from 13 studies. We found no correlation between the sporozoite load of a mosquito batch and time to parasitemia or parasite density of first-wave parasitemia. These findings support the use of infected mosquito bite as a reproducible means of inducing P. falciparum infection and suggest that within this range, salivary gland sporozoite load does not influence the stringency of a CHMI.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anopheles / parasitology*
  • Antimalarials / pharmacology*
  • Arachnid Vectors / parasitology*
  • Humans
  • Insect Bites and Stings
  • Malaria Vaccines / immunology*
  • Malaria, Falciparum / parasitology
  • Malaria, Falciparum / prevention & control*
  • Parasitemia / parasitology
  • Plasmodium falciparum / immunology
  • Plasmodium falciparum / isolation & purification*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Salivary Glands / parasitology
  • Sporozoites
  • Students
  • Volunteers

Substances

  • Antimalarials
  • Malaria Vaccines