Draper group establishes high quality infection model for Plasmodium vivax

A new paper from the Draper group, in collaboration with the laboratories of Julian Rayner (University of Cambridge), Sumi Biswas (Jenner Institute), Jetsumon Sattabongkot (Mahidol University) and Philip Spence (University of Edinburgh), describes the establishment of a modern Plasmodium vivax controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) model. CHMI provides a highly informative means to investigate host-pathogen interactions and enable in vivo proof-of-concept efficacy testing of new drugs and vaccines.

In this study, two healthy UK adults with universal donor blood group were safely infected with a clone of P. vivax from Thailand by mosquito-bite CHMI. Parasitemia developed in both volunteers and, prior to treatment, each volunteer donated blood to produce a cryopreserved stabilate of infected red blood cells. The parasite stabilate from one of these donors (“PvW1”) was then used to inoculate six healthy UK adults by blood-stage CHMI. Parasitemia developed in all volunteers, who were then successfully drug treated. PvW1 parasite DNA was isolated and sequenced to produce a high quality genome assembly . We analysed leading vaccine candidate antigens and multigene families, including the Vivax interspersed repeat (VIR) genes of which we identified 1145 in the PvW1 genome. Our genomic analysis will guide future assessment of candidate vaccines and drugs, as well as experimental medicine studies.

Full publication

Minassian AM*, Themistocleous Y* , Silk SE, Barrett JR, Kemp A, Quinkert D, Nielsen CM, Edwards NJ, Rawlinson TA, Ramos Lopez F, Roobsoong W, Ellis J, Cho JS, Aunin E, Otto DT, Reid AJ, Bach F, Labbé GM, Poulton ID, Marini A, Zaric M, Mulatier M, Lopez Ramon R, Baker M, Mitton CH, Sousa JC, Rachaphaew N, Kumpitak C, Maneechai N, Suansomjit C, Piteekan T, Hou MM, Khozoee B, McHugh K, Roberts DJ, Lawrie AM, Blagborough AM, Nugent FL, Taylor IJ, Johnson KJ, Spence PJ, Sattabongkot J, Biswas S, Rayner JC, and Draper SJ. Controlled human malaria infection with a clone of Plasmodium vivax with high quality genome assembly. JCI Insight. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.152465.