Quantifying Plasmodium vivax radical cure efficacy: a modelling study integrating clinical trial data and transmission dynamics.

Background: Plasmodium vivax forms dormant liver stages (hypnozoites) that can reactivate weeks to months after primary infection. Radical cure requires a combination of antimalarial drugs to kill both the blood-stage and liver-stage parasites. Hypnozoiticidal efficacy of the liver-stage drugs primaquine and tafenoquine cannot be estimated directly because hypnozoites are undetectable.

Reticulocyte Binding Protein Homologue 5 is a target of balancing selection in the population of Papua New Guinea.

Reticulocyte Binding Protein Homologue (RH5), a leading malaria vaccine candidate, is essential for erythrocyte invasion by the parasite, interacting with the human host receptor, basigin. RH5 has a small number of polymorphisms relative to other blood-stage antigens, and studies have shown that vaccine-induced antibodies raised against RH5 are strain-transcending, however most studies investigating RH5 diversity have been done in Africa. Understanding the genetic diversity and evolution of malaria antigens in other regions is important for their validation as vaccine candidates.

Infants show negative changes in affect and physiology when re-experiencing a stressor, its context, and a positive event 24-h later.

Exposure to early life stress shapes further development, affects later stress reactivity, and mental health outcomes. Despite the central role of early experiences, there is little understanding of how these rapidly forgotten events gain their influence. An infant's ability to cope with everyday stressors is founded on successful co-regulation through mother-infant interaction.

Which diagnostic test to use for Testing and Treatment strategies in low-transmission settings: a secondary analysis of a longitudinal interventional study.

Background: The lack of sensitive field tests to diagnose blood stages and hypnozoite carriers prevents Testing and Treatment (TAT) strategies to achieve elimination in low-transmission settings, but recent advances in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and serology position them as promising tools. This study describes a PCR-based TAT strategy (PCRTAT) implemented in Saint Georges (SGO), French Guiana, and explores alternative strategies (seroTAT and seroPCRTAT) to diagnose and treat carriers.

Methods: The PALUSTOP cohort study implemented in SGO (September 2017 to December 2018) screened participants for using PCR tests and treated positive cases.

Eveningness is associated with more severe depressive symptoms independently of sleep quality and fatigue level only in first-episode but not recurrent depression in major depressive disorder.

People with an evening chronotype have an increased risk of experiencing a major depressive disorder (MDD). It is unclear if this effect is predominantly related to the initial development of MDD or also present in recurrent episodes. The current study aimed to investigate if the association between chronotype and depressive severity in MDD patients is comparable in MDD patients with first and recurrent episodes.