Transmission-blocking interventions eliminatemalaria from laboratory populations

摘要

Transmission-blocking interventions aim to reduce the prevalence of infection in endemiccommunities by targeting Plasmodium within the insect host. Although many studies havereported the successful reduction of infection in the mosquito vector, direct evidence thatthere is an onward reduction in infection in the vertebrate host is lacking. Here we report thefirst experiments using a population, transmission-based study of Plasmodium berghei inAnopheles stephensi to assess the impact of a transmission-blocking drug upon both insect andhost populations over multiple transmission cycles. We demonstrate that the selectedtransmission-blocking intervention, which inhibits transmission from vertebrate to insect byonly 32%, reduces the basic reproduction number of the parasite by 20%, and in our modelsystem can eliminate Plasmodium from mosquito and mouse populations at low transmissionintensities. These findings clearly demonstrate that use of transmission-blocking interventionsalone can eliminate Plasmodium from a vertebrate population, and have significantimplications for the future design and implementation of transmission-blocking interventionswithin the field.