Modeling the dynamics of plasmodium falciparum gametocytes in humans during malaria infection

P Cao; KA Collins; S Zaloumis; T Wattanakul; J Tarning; JA Simpson; J McCarthy; JM McCaw

Journal article

Modeling the dynamics of plasmodium falciparum gametocytes in humans during malaria infection

P Cao, KA Collins, S Zaloumis, T Wattanakul, J Tarning, JA Simpson, J McCarthy, JM McCaw

Elife | eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.7554/eLife.49058

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Abstract

Renewed efforts to eliminate malaria have highlighted the potential to interrupt human-to-mosquito transmission — a process mediated by gametocyte kinetics in human hosts. Here we study the in vivo dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes by establishing a framework which incorporates improved measurements of parasitemia, a novel gametocyte dynamics model and model fitting using Bayesian hierarchical inference. We found that the model provides an excellent fit to the clinical data from 17 volunteers infected with P. falciparum (3D7 strain) and reliably predicts observed gametocytemia. We estimated the sexual commitment rate and gametocyte sequestration time to be 0.54% (95% credible int..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Pengxing Cao Author

Sophie Zaloumis Author

Julie Simpson Author

James McCarthy Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Australian Research Council Discovery project DP170103076 James M McCaw National Health and Medical Research Council 1025319 Julie A Simpson National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence 1134989 Julie A Simpson James McCarthy James M McCaw Australian Research Council Early Career Researcher Award DE170100785 Sophie Zaloumis National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship 1104975 Julie A Simpson Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Thanaporn Wattanakul Joel Tarning