Characterisation of the merozoite thrombospondin related anonymous protein (MTRAP) of Plasmodium berghei as a transmission-blocking antigen.

Background: Malaria is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium. Human-to-human transmission depends on a mosquito vector; thus, the interruption of parasite transmission from humans to mosquitoes is an important approach in the fight against malaria. The parasite stages infectious to mosquitoes are the gametocytes, sexual stages that are ingested by the vector during a blood meal and transform into male and female gametes in the midgut.

Screening the Pathogen Box for Molecules Active against Plasmodium Sexual Stages Using a New Nanoluciferase-Based Transgenic Line of P. berghei Identifies Transmission-Blocking Compounds.

Malaria remains an important parasitic disease with a large morbidity and mortality burden. transmission-blocking (TB) compounds are essential for achieving malaria elimination efforts. Recent efforts to develop high-throughput screening (HTS) methods to identify compounds that inhibit or kill gametocytes, the sexual stage infectious to mosquitoes, have yielded insight into new TB compounds.