Drug resistance

Plasmodium (life cycle)

Computer network

Bioinformatics

Biology

Microbiology

Gametocyte

World Wide Web

Blocking (statistics)

Virology

Immunology

Malaria

Plasmodium falciparum

Drug

Computer science

Drug development

Computational biology

Parasite hosting

Drug discovery

Transmission (telecommunications)

Telecommunications

Pharmacology

Trends in Parasitology

Preventing human-to-mosquito transmission of malaria parasites provides possible solutions to interrupt the malaria parasite life cycle for malaria elimination. The development of validated routine assays enabled the discovery of such transmission-blocking compounds. Currently, one development priority remains on combinations of dual-active compounds with equipotent activity against both the disease-causing asexual and transmissible, sexual erythrocytic stages. Additionally, transmission-blocking compounds that target gametocyte-specific biology could be used in combination with compounds against asexual parasites. In either case, preventing transmission will reduce the risk of reinfection and, if different processes are targeted, also curb the spread of drug resistance. Here, we provide an updated roadmap to the discovery and development of new antimalarials with transmission-blocking activity to guide drug discovery for malaria elimination.

Transmission-blocking drugs for malaria elimination