Home
Malaria vector control and antimalarial strategies development
Plasmodium parasites, the protozoa responsible of malaria disease in humans, are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes causing 250-400 million infections and over half a million deaths every year, mostly children below 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the majority of malaria deaths globally and is the most prevalent species in sub-Saharan Africa.
Environmental factors such as climate, social structures, and limited availability of resources, make the control of the disease very difficult, especially in Africa. The varying eco-ethological characteristics of the mosquito vectors and their increased resistance to currently available insecticides make elimination of the disease ever more difficult. The difficulty to control the mosquito populations and the development of parasites drug resistance highlight the urgent need for new interventions that would both alleviate the symptoms and cure the disease and also block malaria transmission.
The infective forms of parasites able to be transmitted to humans, called sporozoites, develop inside the oocyst in the midgut of the Anopheles mosquito. A capsule (also called cyst wall) protects the oocyst and separates it from the midgut tissue. The mechanism of oocyst rupture is still unknown. The oocyst maturation is a process that takes roughly 2 weeks being the longest stage of Plasmodium life cycle. For this reason we aim to develop antimalarial drugs able to act against oocyst rupture and interrupt sporozoite transmission.
![]() |
A mosquito midgut with fluorescent Plasmodium oocysts (red) |