Plasmodium malariae is considered a minor malaria parasite, although its global disease burden is underappreciated. The aim of this study was to develop an induced blood-stage malaria (IBSM) model of P. malariae to study parasite biology, diagnostic assays, and treatment.
The tight gene expression regulation controls the development and pathogenesis of human malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum throughout the complex life cycle. Recent studies have revealed the pervasive nascent transcripts in the genome of P. falciparum, suggesting the existence of a hidden transcriptome involved in the dynamic gene expression. However, the landscape and related biological functions of nascent non-coding RNAs (ns-ncRNAs) are still poorly explored.
The development of a blood-stage malaria vaccine has largely focused on the subunit approach. However, the limited success of this strategy, mainly due to antigenic polymorphism and the failure to maintain potent parasite-specific immune responses, indicates that other approaches must be considered. Whole parasite (WP) vaccines offer many advantages over sub-units; they represent every antigen on the organism, thus limiting the effects of antigenic polymorphism, and similarly they compensate for individual Immune-Response (Ir) gene-regulated non-responsiveness to any particular antigen. From a development perspective, they negate the need to identify and compare the relative efficacies of individual candidate antigens. WP vaccines induce protective immunity that is largely cell-mediated.
Artefenomel and DSM265 are two new compounds that have been shown to be well tolerated and effective when administered as monotherapy malaria treatment. This study aimed to determine the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of artefenomel and DSM265 administered in combination to healthy subjects in a volunteer infection study using the Plasmodium falciparum-induced blood-stage malaria model. Thirteen subjects were inoculated with parasite-infected erythrocytes on day 0 and received a single oral dose of artefenomel and DSM265 on day 7.
Artefenomel and DSM265 are two new compounds that have been shown to be well tolerated and effective when administered as monotherapy malaria treatment. This study aimed to determine the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of artefenomel and DSM265 administered in combination to healthy subjects in a volunteer infection study using the Plasmodium falciparum induced blood stage malaria model.
