Progress towards malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion: perspectives from the World Health Organization.

Malaria remains a global health challenge, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities. Despite substantial progress, the emergence of anti-malarial drug resistance poses a constant threat. The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which includes Cambodia, China's Yunnan province, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam has been the epicentre for the emergence of resistance to successive generations of anti-malarial therapies.

Accelerating malaria elimination in Cambodia: an intensified approach for targeting at-risk populations.

Background: Malaria in Cambodia has decreased by 90.8% between 2010 and 2020, driven by the commitment of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria (CNM) and the achievements of the roll-out of a village malaria worker programme. However, in the first seven months of 2018, CNM identified a 207% increase (11,969 to 36,778) in confirmed malaria cases compared to the same months in the previous year.

Molecular determinants of SR-B1-dependent Plasmodium sporozoite entry into hepatocytes.

Sporozoite forms of the Plasmodium parasite, the causative agent of malaria, are transmitted by mosquitoes and first infect the liver for an initial round of replication before parasite proliferation in the blood. The molecular mechanisms involved during sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes remain poorly understood. Two receptors of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the tetraspanin CD81 and the scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1), play an important role during the entry of Plasmodium sporozoites into hepatocytes.

Child-Sensitive WASH Composite Score and the Nutritional Status in Cambodian Children.

Progress in health has occurred in the past decades in Cambodia, in terms of health service access and interventions, but several indicators, including the prevalence of malnourished children, remain alarming. The causes of undernutrition are often linked to inadequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene services but limited evidence exists on the direct association between poor WASH practices and children's' nutritional statuses. This study investigates the relationship between water, sanitation and hygiene practices, defined as the child-sensitive composite score, and the nutritional status of children under five years old, measured as the weight-for-height z-score, mid-upper arm circumference or height-for-age z-score in six districts of Cambodia.

Plasmodium sporozoites can invade hepatocytic cells independently of the Ephrin receptor A2.

Sporozoite forms of the malaria parasite Plasmodium are transmitted by mosquitoes and first infect the liver for an initial round of replication before parasite proliferation in the blood. The molecular mechanisms involved during sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes remain poorly understood. In previous studies, two receptors of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the tetraspanin CD81 and the Scavenger Receptor BI (SR-BI), were shown to play an important role during entry of Plasmodium sporozoites into hepatocytic cells.

Dynamics of correlation-frozen antinodal quasiparticles in superconducting cuprates.

Many puzzling properties of high-critical temperature () superconducting (HTSC) copper oxides have deep roots in the nature of the antinodal quasiparticles, the elementary excitations with wave vector parallel to the Cu-O bonds. These electronic states are most affected by the onset of antiferromagnetic correlations and charge instabilities, and they host the maximum of the anisotropic superconducting gap and pseudogap. We use time-resolved extreme-ultraviolet photoemission with proper photon energy (18 eV) and time resolution (50 fs) to disclose the ultrafast dynamics of the antinodal states in a prototypical HTSC cuprate.

P36 determines host cell receptor usage during sporozoite invasion.

sporozoites, the mosquito-transmitted forms of the malaria parasite, first infect the liver for an initial round of replication before the emergence of pathogenic blood stages. Sporozoites represent attractive targets for antimalarial preventive strategies, yet the mechanisms of parasite entry into hepatocytes remain poorly understood. Here we show that the two main species causing malaria in humans, and , rely on two distinct host cell surface proteins, CD81 and the Scavenger Receptor BI (SR-BI), respectively, to infect hepatocytes.

Malaria Sporozoites Traverse Host Cells within Transient Vacuoles.

Plasmodium sporozoites are deposited in the host skin by Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasites migrate from the dermis to the liver, where they invade hepatocytes through a moving junction (MJ) to form a replicative parasitophorous vacuole (PV). Malaria sporozoites need to traverse cells during progression through host tissues, a process requiring parasite perforin-like protein 1 (PLP1).

CD81 is required for rhoptry discharge during host cell invasion by Plasmodium yoelii sporozoites.

Plasmodium sporozoites are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes and first infect the liver of their mammalian host, where they develop as liver stages before the onset of erythrocytic infection and malaria symptoms. Sporozoite entry into hepatocytes is an attractive target for anti-malarial prophylactic strategies but remains poorly understood at the molecular level. Apicomplexan parasites invade host cells by forming a parasitophorous vacuole that is essential for parasite development, a process that involves secretion of apical organelles called rhoptries.

A rapid and robust selection procedure for generating drug-selectable marker-free recombinant malaria parasites.

Experimental genetics have been widely used to explore the biology of the malaria parasites. The rodent parasites Plasmodium berghei and less frequently P. yoelii are commonly utilised, as their complete life cycle can be reproduced in the laboratory and because they are genetically tractable via homologous recombination.

Post-transcriptional silencing of UIS4 in Plasmodium berghei sporozoites is important for host switch.

Plasmodium sporozoites are transmitted by mosquitoes and first infect hepatocytes of their mammalian host, wherein they develop as liver stages, surrounded by the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM). The parasite must rapidly adapt to its changing environment after switching host. Shortly after invasion, the PVM is remodelled by insertion of essential parasite proteins of the early transcribed membrane protein family such as UIS4.