Title
Developing Plasmodium vivax Resources for Liver Stage Study in the Peruvian Amazon Region
Date Issued
13 April 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Orjuela-Sanchez P.
Villa Z.H.
Meister S.
Lamonte G.M.
Campo B.
Winzeler E.A.
Publisher(s)
American Chemical Society
Abstract
To develop new drugs and vaccines for malaria elimination, it will be necessary to discover biological interventions, including small molecules that act against Plasmodium vivax exoerythrocytic forms. However, a robust in vitro culture system for P. vivax is still lacking. Thus, to study exoerythrocytic forms, researchers must have simultaneous access to fresh, temperature-controlled patient blood samples, as well as an anopheline mosquito colony. In addition, researchers must rely on native mosquito species to avoid introducing a potentially dangerous invasive species into a malaria-endemic region. Here, we report an in vitro culture system carried out on site in a malaria-endemic region for liver stage parasites of P. vivax sporozoites obtained from An. darlingi, the main malaria vector in the Americas. P. vivax sporozoites were obtained by dissection of salivary glands from infected An. darlingi mosquitoes and purified by Accudenz density gradient centrifugation. HC04 liver cells were exposed to P. vivax sporozoites and cultured up to 9 days. To overcome low P. vivax patient parasitemias, potentially lower mosquito vectorial capacity, and humid, nonsterile environmental conditions, a new antibiotic cocktail was included in tissue culture to prevent contamination. Culturing conditions supported exoerythrocytic (EEF) P. vivax liver stage growth up to 9 days and allowed for maturation into intrahepatocyte merosomes. Some of the identified small forms were resistant to atovaquone (1 μM) but sensitive to the phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase inhibitor, KDU691 (1 μM). This study reports a field-accessible EEF production process for drug discovery in a malaria-endemic site in which viable P. vivax sporozoites are used for drug studies using hepatocyte infection. Our data demonstrate that the development of meaningful, field-based resources for P. vivax liver stage drug screening and liver stage human malaria experimentation in the Amazon region is feasible.
Start page
531
End page
540
Volume
4
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Medicina tropical Enfermedades infecciosas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85045394958
PubMed ID
Source
ACS Infectious Diseases
ISSN of the container
23738227
Sponsor(s)
This project was funded by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV120094/95/96) to E.A.W. and the US National Institutes of Health Cooperative Agreement U19AI089681 and D43TW007120 to J.M.V. We are indebted to all malaria patients for donating their blood samples to this study. We acknowledge Lutecio Torres, Gerson Guedez, Juan Michi, and Christian Rodriguez for their assistance in the insectary management and experiments. We thank Dionicia Gamboa from the Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humbolt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano de Heredia, for supervising the work carried out at the field study site. We would like to thank Paula Maguina, Jan Economy, and Rosa Alban for administrative assistance. This publication has been possible thanks to the authorization and permits N. 0424-2012-AG-DGFFS-DGEFFS from Direction de Gestioń Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre y la Direccioń General Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Republica del Peru.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus