Eliminating malaria transmission requires targeting immature and mature gametocytes through lipoidal uptake of antimalarials.

ABSTRACT: Novel antimalarial compounds targeting both the pathogenic and transmissible stages of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, would greatly benefit malaria elimination strategies. However, most compounds affecting asexual blood stage parasites show severely reduced activity against gametocytes. The impact of this activity loss on a compound's transmission-blocking activity is unclear. Here, we report the systematic evaluation of the activity loss against gametocytes and investigate the confounding factors contributing to this. A threshold for acceptable activity loss between asexual blood stage parasites and gametocytes was defined, with near-equipotent compounds required to prevent continued gametocyte maturation and onward transmission. Target abundance is not predictive of g

SUBMITTER: Naude M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11568134 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature