MEFAS, a hybrid of artesunate-mefloquine active against asexual stages of Plasmodium vivax in field isolates, inhibits malaria transmission.

Human malaria continues to be a public health problem and an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Malaria control is achieved through both individual protection against mosquito bites and drug treatment, which is hampered by the spread of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to most antimalarials, including artemisinin derivatives. One of the key pharmacological strategies for controlling malaria is to block transmission of the parasites to their mosquito vectors.

Brazil's first free-mating laboratory colony of Nyssorhynchus darlingi.

Introduction: The lack of highly-productive Nyssorhynchus darlingi laboratory colonies limits some studies. We report the first well-established laboratory colony of Ny. darlingi in Brazil.

Dual RNA-seq identifies human mucosal immunity protein Mucin-13 as a hallmark of Plasmodium exoerythrocytic infection.

The exoerythrocytic stage of Plasmodium infection is a critical window for prophylactic intervention. Using genome-wide dual RNA sequencing of flow-sorted infected and uninfected hepatoma cells we show that the human mucosal immunity gene, mucin-13 (MUC13), is strongly upregulated during Plasmodium exoerythrocytic hepatic-stage infection. We confirm MUC13 transcript increases in hepatoma cell lines and primary hepatocytes.

Developing Plasmodium vivax Resources for Liver Stage Study in the Peruvian Amazon Region.

To develop new drugs and vaccines for malaria elimination, it will be necessary to discover biological interventions, including small molecules that act against Plasmodium vivax exoerythrocytic forms. However, a robust in vitro culture system for P. vivax is still lacking.

Continuous Supply of Plasmodium vivax Sporozoites from Colonized Anopheles darlingi in the Peruvian Amazon.

In vitro culture of Plasmodium vivax liver stages underlies key understandings of the fundamental biology of this parasite, particularly the latent, hyponozoite stage, toward drug and vaccine development. Here, we report systematic production of Plasmodium vivax sporozoites in colonized Anopheles darlingi mosquitoes in the Peruvian Amazon. Human subject-derived P.

Intensive trapping of blood-fed Anopheles darlingi in Amazonian Peru reveals unexpectedly high proportions of avian blood-meals.

Anopheles darlingi, the main malaria vector in the Neotropics, has been considered to be highly anthropophilic. However, many behavioral aspects of this species remain unknown, such as the range of blood-meal sources. Barrier screens were used to collect resting Anopheles darlingi mosquitoes from 2013 to 2015 in three riverine localities (Lupuna, Cahuide and Santa Emilia) in Amazonian Peru.

Changes in Genetic Diversity from Field to Laboratory During Colonization of Anopheles darlingi Root (Diptera: Culicidae).

The process of colonizing any arthropod species, including vector mosquitoes, necessarily involves adaptation to laboratory conditions. The adaptation and evolution of colonized mosquito populations needs consideration when such colonies are used as representative models for pathogen transmission dynamics. A recently established colony of Anopheles darlingi, the primary malaria vector in Amazonian South America, was tested for genetic diversity and bottleneck after 21 generations, using microsatellites.

Improved molecular technique for the differentiation of neotropical anopheline species.

We evaluated a PCR-RFLP of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 region (ITS2) to distinguish species of Anopheles commonly reported in the Amazon and validated this method using reared F1 offspring. The following species of Anopheles were used for molecular analysis: An. (Nys.