Mosquito Saliva-mediated Inhibition of Parasites Rates on Mice Model for Malaria

Abstract

Although malaria has been virtually eradicated from Indonesia, it is currently recognized as a serious re-emerging threat to public health. Anti-malarial drug resistances as well as vector resistance against insecticides are major public health problems which hinder the control of malaria (e.g. Yadouleton et al. 2010). Therefore, development of a vaccine could be a more efficient strategy to overcome the epidemic. Because of the complexity of malaria’s parasite life cycle, a vaccine will need to encompass more than a single approach to reach a high degree of efficacy i.e. pre-erythrocytic vaccine, blood-stage vaccine, and transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV) candidates. It has been widely observed that saliva of mosquito that transmits disease contains imunomodulatory factors that could enhance pathogen infection (Titus et al. 2006). Therefore, it should be possible to control pathogen transmission by vaccinating the host against the molecule(s) in saliva that potentiate the infection. However, salivary activities in relation with establishing parasite’s infection of vectors for Malaria from Indonesia as potential target for TBV e.g. Anopheles aconitus (A. aconitus), has not been elaborated so far. This research wanted to test this hypothesis by using the prototypic murine model for malaria infection i.e. infection of mice via Plasmodium berghei after injection with mosquito SGE (Salivary Gland Extract) serving as “vaccine model”. Elaborating the potential salivary activity from A. aconitus, as 1 out of 13 important malaria vectors in Indonesia (Stoops et al. 2009), could be an important step to investigate novel target for TBV against Malaria. The objective of this research is therefore to investigate the potential role of saliva in relation with the establishment of parasite infectivity in mouse model for Malaria.