Resistance to Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs): do not forget the partner drug! (Publications)
Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have become the mainstay for malaria treatment in almost all malaria endemic settings. Artemisinin derivatives are highly potent and fast acting antimalarials; [...] regimen. When introduced, ACTs were highly efficacious and contributed to the steep decrease of malaria over the last decades. However, parasites with decreased susceptibility to artemisinins have emerged [...] ce and potential solutions to extend the useful therapeutic lifespan of the...
Aetiology of fever in returning travelers and migrants: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Publications)
openia and hyperbilirubinemia were respectively 5-14, 3-11 and 5-7 times more likely in malaria than non-malaria patients. High variability of results between studies reflects heterogeneity in study design [...] investigations performed, and diseases included. CONCLUSION: Malaria accounted for one fifth of febrile cases, highlighting the importance of rapid malaria testing in febrile returning travelers, followed by other [...] met criteria for data extraction. Tropical infections accounted for...
Importance of factors determining the effective lifetime of a mass, long-lasting, insecticidal net distribution: a sensitivity analysis (Publications)
ensemble of 14 stochastic individual-based model variants for malaria in humans was used, combined with a deterministic model for malaria in mosquitoes. RESULTS: The effective lifetime was most sensitive [...] BACKGROUND: Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) reduce malaria transmission by protecting individuals from infectious bites, and by reducing mosquito survival. In recent years, millions of LLINs have [...] chemically and are destroyed, making repeated interventions necessary to prevent...
Molecular monitoring of <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> resistance to artemisinin in Tanzania (Publications)
combination therapies (ACTs) are recommended for use against uncomplicated malaria in areas of multi-drug resistant malaria, such as sub-Saharan Africa. However, their long-term usefulness in these high [...] Tanzania, supporting the Ministry of Health's decision to adopt artemether+lumefantrine as first-line malaria treatment. The findings recommend further studies to assess PfATPase6 mutations in sentinel sites
<em>Plasmodium falciparum</em>-infected erythrocytes: agglutination by diverse Kenyan plasma is associated with severe disease and young host age (Publications)
compared. The results show that the AF of isolates causing severe malaria were significantly higher than those of isolates causing mild malaria; and AF decreased significantly with the increasing age of the [...] falciparum-infected red blood cells are potentially important targets of naturally acquired immunity to malaria. Natural infections induce agglutinating antibodies specific to the VSA variants expressed by the
The temporal dynamics and infectiousness of subpatent <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> infections in relation to parasite density (Publications)
transmission and whether they need to be detected and targeted to achieve malaria elimination. In this study we analyse a range of malaria datasets to quantify the density, detectability, course of infection [...] Malaria infections occurring below the limit of detection of standard diagnostics are common in all endemic settings. However, key questions remain surrounding their contribution to sustaining transmission
An assay to probe <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> growth, transmission stage formation and early gametocyte development (Publications)
proliferation to sexual differentiation initiates the production of the gametocyte, which is the malaria parasite stage required for human-to-mosquito transmission. This protocol describes an assay designed [...] s on asexual replication, sexual conversion and early gametocyte development in the major human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Synchronized asexually replicating parasites are induced for gametocyte [...] transmission-blocking compounds and to further investigate the mechanism...
Comparison of diagnostic methods for the detection and quantification of the four sympatric <em>Plasmodium</em> species in field samples from Papua... (Publications)
Plasmodium infections is essential for malaria morbidity and mortality reduction in tropical areas. Despite great advantages of light microscopy (LM) for malaria diagnosis, its limited sensitivity is a [...] P. malariae and P. ovale. P. falciparum and P. vivax prevalence by qPCR was 40.9% and 65.7% respectively. This compares to 43.8% and 73.2% by nPCR and 47.1% and 67.5% by PCR_LDR_FMA. P. malariae and P [...] LM was lower for all four species, being 25.4% for P. falciparum, 54.9% for P....
Design, synthesis, and biological and crystallographic evaluation of novel inhibitors of <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> enoyl-ACP-reductase... (Publications)
Malaria, a disease of worldwide significance, is responsible for over one million deaths annually. The liver-stage of Plasmodium's life cycle is the first, obligatory, but clinically silent step in malaria [...] development and has been regarded as a potential antimalarial target for the development of drugs for malaria prophylaxis and liver-stage eradication. In this paper, new coumarin-based triclosan analogues are
The spiroindolone drug candidate NITD609 potently inhibits gametocytogenesis and blocks <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> transmission to Anopheles... (Publications)
The global malaria agenda has undergone a reorientation from control of clinical cases to entirely eradicating malaria. For that purpose, a key objective is blocking transmission of malaria parasites from