Journal of Infectious Diseases
Journal of Infectious Diseases
5 years ago

Gametocytemia and Attractiveness of Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Kenyan Children to Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes.

Logan JG, Sauerwein RW, Takken W, Masiga D, Busula AO, Verhulst NO, Mweresa CK, de Boer JG, Bousema T
It has been suggested that Plasmodia manipulate their vertebrate hosts to enhance parasite transmission. Using a dual-choice olfactometer, we investigated the attraction of Anopheles gambiae to 50 Kenyan children (aged 5-12 years) who were naturally infected with Plasmodium falciparum or noninfected controls. Microscopic gametocyte carriers attracted almost 2 times more mosquitoes than children who were parasite free, harbored asexual stages, or had gametocytes at submicroscopic densities. By using highly sensitive stage-specific molecular methods to detect P. falciparum, we show that gametocytes-and not their noninfectious asexual progenitors-induce increased attractiveness of humans to mosquitoes. Our findings therefore support the parasite host manipulation hypothesis.

Publisher URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28859429

DOI: PubMed:28859429

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.