Humanized Mouse Model as a Platform for Continuous Propagation of P. vivax in a Laboratory Setting
Abstract
Topic Area: Malaria Currently there are no effective methods to continuously cultivate Plasmodium vivax in a laboratory setting. This prevents routine studies of any life stage of this important pathogen and directly affects the development of new drugs and vaccines against it. The propagation methods for the asexual and sexual blood stages of the parasite are still very inefficient, and the current vivax malaria research is limited to the endemic areas of the world where samples of infected blood can be obtained from the human volunteers. The lack of blood stage culturing techniques directly limits the access to the sporozoites and, in turn, hampers our ability to study P. vivax liver stages and persisting hypnozoites -- the cause of the relapsing malaria disease. The research described in this proposal bridges the current advances made in the studies of P. vivax liver stages using a new liver-chimeric mouse model to aid the development of short asexual and sexual stage culture methodology, which would allow for mosquito infections and sporozoite production. This development would allow closing the gap in our ability to study the entire P. vivax parasite life cycle in the research laboratory.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 29, 2018
- Source ID
- W81XWH1710482
Entities
People
- Sebastian A. Mikolajczak
Organizations
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research
- United States Army