Intra-host Dynamics of Malaria Parasites: A Multifaceted Examination of Ecology, Evolution, Drug Resistance, and Competition

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Description
To combat the global antimalarial resistance crisis effective resistance management strategies are needed. To do so, I need to gain a better understanding of the ecological interactions occurring within malaria infections. Despite the importance of the complex interplay among co-infecting

To combat the global antimalarial resistance crisis effective resistance management strategies are needed. To do so, I need to gain a better understanding of the ecological interactions occurring within malaria infections. Despite the importance of the complex interplay among co-infecting strains, our current knowledge and empirical data of within-host diversity and malaria disease dynamics is limited. In this thesis, I explore the multifaceted dynamics of malaria infections through an ecological lens. My overall research question is: "How do ecological interactions, including niche complementarity, competition dynamics, and the cost of resistance, shape the outcomes of malaria infections, and what implications does this have on understanding and improving resistance management strategies?” In Chapter II, titled “Niche Complementarity in Malaria Infections” I demonstrate that ecological principles are observed in malarial infections by experimentally manipulating the biodiversity of rodent malaria P. chabaudi infections. I observed that some parasites experienced competitive suppression, others experienced competitive facilitation, while others were not impacted. Next, in Chapter III, titled “Determining the Differential Impact of Competition Between Genetically Distinct Plasmodium falciparum Strains” I investigate the differential effect of competition among six genetically distinct strains. The impact of competition varied between strain combinations, and both suppression and facilitation were observed, but most pairings had no competitive interactions. Lastly, in Chapter IV, titled “Assessing Fitness Costs in Malaria Parasites: A Comprehensive Review and Implications for Drug Resistance Management”, I summarize where the field currently stands and what evidence there is for the presence of a fitness cost, or lack thereof, and I highlight the current gaps in knowledge. I found that evidence from field, in vitro, and animal models are overall suggestive of the presence of a fitness cost, however, these costs were not always found. Amid the current focus on malaria eradication, it is crucial to understand the impact of biodiversity on disease severity. By incorporating an ecological approach to infectious disease systems, I can gain insights on within-host interactions and how they impact parasite fitness and transmissibility.
Date Created
2024
Agent

Innovate to Eradicate: Advancing Public Health Through Novel Vector Control and Surveillance Strategies

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Description
Vector control plays an important role in the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs). As there are no (prophylactic) drugs and/or vaccines available for many arboviral diseases (such as zika, chikungunya, Saint Louis encephalitis, Ross River virus), the frontline

Vector control plays an important role in the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs). As there are no (prophylactic) drugs and/or vaccines available for many arboviral diseases (such as zika, chikungunya, Saint Louis encephalitis, Ross River virus), the frontline approach to prevent or reduce disease morbidity and mortality is through the reduction of the mosquito vector population size and/or reducing vector-human contact using insecticides. Frontline tools in malaria (an MBD caused by a parasite) control and elimination have been drugs (targeting the malaria parasite) and insecticides (targeting the vectors) through indoor residual spraying (IRS) (spraying the internal walls and sometimes the roofs of dwellings with residual insecticides to kill adult mosquito vectors), and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), while arboviral vectors are frequently targeted using outdoor fogging and space spraying (indoor or outdoor spraying of insecticides to kill adult mosquito vectors). Integrative and novel vector control efforts are urgently needed since the aforementioned tools may not be as effective against those mosquito species that are resistant to insecticides and/or have a different (or changed) behavior allowing them to avoid existing tools. In Chapters 2 and 3, I investigate mosquito vector surveillance in Arizona by (i) discussing the species composition and public health implications of the State’s mosquito fauna, and (ii) comparing the effectiveness of 4 different carbon dioxide (CO2) sources in attracting different mosquito species on the Arizona State University Tempe Campus. In Chapters 4 and 5, I investigate a novel vector control tool by (i) completing a literature review on using electric fields (EFs) to control insects, and (ii) presenting novel data on using Insulated Conductor Wires (ICWs) to generate EFs that prevent host-seeking female Aedes aegypti from entering spaces. In Chapter 6, I discuss the non-target effects of chemical malaria control on other arthropods, including other biological and mechanical infectious disease vectors. Overall, this dissertation highlights the important role that the development of novel surveillance and vector control tools could play in improved mosquito control, which ultimately will reduce disease morbidity and mortality.
Date Created
2024
Agent

Life History Theory and Evolutionary Strategies to Treat Cancer

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Description
Life history theory offers a powerful framework to understand evolutionary selection pressures and explain how adaptive strategies use the life history trade-off and differences in cancer defenses across the tree of life. There is often some cost to the phenotype

Life history theory offers a powerful framework to understand evolutionary selection pressures and explain how adaptive strategies use the life history trade-off and differences in cancer defenses across the tree of life. There is often some cost to the phenotype of therapeutic resistance and so sensitive cells can usually outcompete resistant cells in the absence of therapy. Adaptive therapy, as an evolutionary and ecologically inspired paradigm in cancer treatment, uses the competitive interactions between drug-sensitive, and drug-resistant subclones to help suppress the drug-resistant subclones. However, there remain several open challenges in designing adaptive therapies, particularly in extending this approach to multiple drugs. Furthermore, the immune system also plays a role in preventing and controlling cancers. Life history theory may help to explain the variation in immune cell levels across the tree of life that likely contributes to variance in cancer prevalence across vertebrates. However, this has not been previously explored. This work 1) describes resistance management for cancer, lessons cancer researchers learned from farmers since adaptive evolutionary strategies were inspired by the management of resistance in agricultural pests, 2) demonstrates how adaptive therapy protocols work with gemcitabine and capecitabine in a hormone-refractory breast cancer mouse model, 3) tests for a relationship between life history strategy and the immune system, and tests for an effect of immune cells levels on cancer prevalence across vertebrates, and 4) provides a novel approach to improve the teaching of life history theory. This work applies lessons that cancer researchers learned from pest managers, who face similar issues of pesticide resistance, to control cancers. It represents the first time that multiple drugs have been used in adaptive therapy for cancer, and the first time that adaptive therapy has been used on hormone-refractory breast cancer. I found that this evolutionary approach to cancer treatment prolongs survival in mice and also selects for the slow life history strategy. I also discovered that species with slower life histories have higher concentrations of white blood cells and a higher percentage of heterophils, monocytes and segmented neutrophils. Moreover, larger platelet size is associated with higher cancer prevalence in mammals.
Date Created
2023
Agent

Gaming Mosquito Eradication: An Innovative Educational App

Description

The majority of the public is not aware that common objects in their backyard can be mosquito breeding sites, thus leading to an increase in mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases affecting humans and animals during the peak seasons. An engaging a

The majority of the public is not aware that common objects in their backyard can be mosquito breeding sites, thus leading to an increase in mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases affecting humans and animals during the peak seasons. An engaging app that instructs people of all ages how to identify, prevent, and eliminate breeding sites may be of use in increasing positive behavioral changes in people, and therefore reducing available breeding sites for mosquitoes. The Embodied Games Lab in Psychology at Arizona State University created an educational game phone app using machine learning to teach students how to identify and eliminate mosquito breeding sites. Skeeter Breeder is an interactive, educational game that teaches participants about potential mosquito breeding sites and how to eliminate them from the immediate environment as documented by smartphone imagery. Currently, there is no educational game phone app that uses machine learning to teach this topic. This Thesis describes a pilot study focused on educating about common mosquito breeding sites and increasing the knowledge of 5th graders on the topic through an agentic (by taking their own pictures), engaging (game-like platform with rewards), and interactive (receiving immediate feedback on pictures) game developed from scratch at ASU.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Effect of Temperature on Insecticide Susceptibility in knockdown resistant Aedes aegypti

Description

Aedes aegypti are vectors for common arthropod-borne-diseases (arboviruses) such as Zika, yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya, which are of significant public health concern. The management of vectors is critical to mitigating the incidence, reemergence, and expansion of these diseases. Vector

Aedes aegypti are vectors for common arthropod-borne-diseases (arboviruses) such as Zika, yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya, which are of significant public health concern. The management of vectors is critical to mitigating the incidence, reemergence, and expansion of these diseases. Vector control has been complicated by the emergence of insecticide resistance within vectors, which threatens the effectiveness of control efforts. Furthermore, vector management is also complicated by the interaction between insecticide susceptibility and abiotic factors, such as temperature. While it is well-documented that environmental factors affect insecticide susceptibility, it is poorly understood how insecticide resistant vectors with different genetic backgrounds respond to insecticides at different temperatures. This study aims to establish the relationship between deltamethrin susceptibility at varying temperatures across Ae. aegypti lines that differ in their susceptibility due to knockdown resistance (kdr) mechanism. This was done through exposures using the “WHO tube test method” using simulated climate environments (22°C, 27 °C, and 32 °C) on mosquitoes of varying resistance at 1016 and homozygous resistance at 1534. This experiment is still ongoing. This study found that IICC was the most resistant genotype, VVCC the least resistant, and VICC and intermediate. There was found to be no statistically significant relationship between temperature and insecticide susceptibility across kdr genotypes.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Investigating the life history traits of three kdr insecticide resistant strains of Aedes aegypti

Description

Vector-borne diseases, such as Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever, cause a significant portion of the global infectious disease problem, thereby representing an enormous public health threat worldwide. The threat has become more concerning as Aedes aegypti, who serve as

Vector-borne diseases, such as Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever, cause a significant portion of the global infectious disease problem, thereby representing an enormous public health threat worldwide. The threat has become more concerning as Aedes aegypti, who serve as primary vectors for these infectious diseases, continue to thrive in highly populated, urban environments. To solve this problem, insecticides have commonly been used, but this has brought forward additional issues. The overreliance on insecticides has resulted in insecticide resistant individuals emerging within once susceptible populations. Insecticide resistance in Ae. aegypti is a worldwide problem because it compromises the ability to control Ae. aegypti populations, thus increasing the spread of vector-borne diseases. With pyrethroids being commonly used worldwide, the mechanisms behind the knock-down resistance (kdr) are essential to investigate. Investigating the fitness of kdr resistant Ae. aegypti is essential in order to better understand their ability to reproduce and survive in a natural environment. Kdr resistant mutations are known to come with fitness costs: a highly energetic cost or a significant disadvantage that diminishes an aspect of the individual’s fitness. Although it is known that resistance comes with a cost, many research gaps remain. Still, it is unknown whether resistant genotypes differ in larval development times, immature survival, and adult qualities (body weight and wing length). As such, this study observed the impact of the larval development of Ae. aegypti genotypes with varying resistance at loci 1016 and 1534 of the voltage gated sodium channels. The 1016 kdr mutation results in a valine to isoleucine amino acid substitution at position 1016 (V1016I), and the 1534 kdr mutation results in a phenylalanine to cysteine amino acid substitution at position 1534 (F1534C). All strains included in this study were homozygous resistant for the 1534 mutation, while genotype varied at the 1016 locus. Mosquito strains were named after their genotype and are VVCC, VICC, and IICC. Mosquito larvae of each genotype were placed at three temperatures (22℃, 27℃, 32℃) and time to pupation, emergence, immature mortality, sex ratio, dry weight, and wing length was measured. In congruence with previous data, larval pupation and emergence occurred at a faster rate in hotter temperatures (32℃) than in colder temperatures (22℃) for all genotypes. Furthermore, the observed data shows that male mosquitos generally emerged before female mosquitos, regardless of temperature or strain. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between different genotypes in any of the fitness parameters, although the times to pupation suggest a potential trend of increased developmental time with increased resistivity. Ultimately, this data brings important implications to come up with better solutions in vector control programs in order to decrease the likelihood of adult mosquitoes becoming infected and delivering more infective bites. The study also brings light into on where future studies should take place, such as immature competition experiments, and reproductive fitness parameters in order to provide a more complete picture of the life history traits of Ae. aegypti with kdr mutations.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Increasing Our Understanding of Insecticide Resistance Evolution by Expanding and Comparing Insecticide Susceptibility Bioassays

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Description
Insecticide resistance is a continuing issue that negatively affects both public health and agriculture and allows vector-borne diseases to spread throughout the globe. To improve resistance management strategies (RMS), robust susceptibility bioassays need to be performed in order to fill

Insecticide resistance is a continuing issue that negatively affects both public health and agriculture and allows vector-borne diseases to spread throughout the globe. To improve resistance management strategies (RMS), robust susceptibility bioassays need to be performed in order to fill the gap of the relationship between resistant and susceptible genotype and phenotype, and a deeper knowledge of how bioassay data relates to vector control success or failure is imperative. A bioassay method that is infrequently used but yields robust results is the topical application bioassay, where the insect is directly treated with a constant volume and concentration of an insecticide via a syringe. To bring more attention to this method, my colleagues and I published a paper in the Journal of Visualized Experiments where the optimized protocol of the topical application bioassay for mosquitoes and fruit flies is described, and the strengths and limitations to the method are explained. To further investigate insecticide susceptibility tests, I set up my individual project where I used Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to compare the topical application bioassay to the commonly used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bottle bioassay and World Health Organization (WHO) tube test. The objective of this study was to test which method exhibited the most variability in mortality results, which would guide the choice of assay to determine the link between resistant and susceptible genotype and phenotype. The results showed that the topical application method did indeed exhibit the least amount of variation, followed by the CDC bottle bioassay (WHO data is currently being collected). This suggests that the topical application bioassay could be a useful tool in insecticide resistance surveillance studies, and, depending on the goal, may be better than the CDC and WHO tube tests for assessing resistance levels at a given site. This study challenges the value of the widely used CDC and WHO assays and provides a discussion on the importance of technical and practical resistance assays. This will help vector control specialists to collect accurate surveillance data that will inform effective RMS.
Date Created
2022
Agent

Mathematical Assessment of the Impact of Insecticide-Based Intervention on Malaria Transmission Dynamics

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Description
Malaria is a deadly, infectious, parasitic disease which is caused by Plasmodium parasites and transmitted between humans via the bite of adult female Anopheles mosquitoes. The primary insecticide-based interventions used to control malaria are indoor residual spraying (IRS) and long-lasting

Malaria is a deadly, infectious, parasitic disease which is caused by Plasmodium parasites and transmitted between humans via the bite of adult female Anopheles mosquitoes. The primary insecticide-based interventions used to control malaria are indoor residual spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticide nets (LLINs). Larvicides are another insecticide-based intervention which is less commonly used. In this study, a mathematical model for malaria transmission dynamics in an endemic region which incorporates the use of IRS, LLINS, and larvicides is presented. The model is rigorously analyzed to gain insight into the asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium. Simulations of the model show that individual insecticide-based interventions will not realistically control malaria in regions with high endemicity, but an integrated vector management strategy involving the use of multiple interventions could lead to the effective control of the disease. This study suggests that the use of larvicides alongside IRS and LLINs in endemic regions may be more effective than using only IRS and LLINs.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Correlation between Larvicide Susceptibility and Quiescence in Aedes aegypti

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Description

Mosquitoes are estimated to kill roughly 700,000 people each year through the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Vector control via insecticides is a widely used method in order to combat the spread of mosquito populations; however, this comes at a cost.

Mosquitoes are estimated to kill roughly 700,000 people each year through the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Vector control via insecticides is a widely used method in order to combat the spread of mosquito populations; however, this comes at a cost. Resistance to insecticides has the potential to increase vector-borne disease rates. Aedes aegypti is an invasive mosquito species in Arizona and is a known potential vector for a variety of infectious diseases including dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever. In contrast to many other mosquito species Ae. aegypti mosquito eggs can undergo quiescence, an active state of dormancy, over long periods of time. Variation in quiescent periods correlates to climatic rainfall alterations and can ultimately influence hatching and mating between multiple generations. I have studied the effect of quiescence on larvicide (i.e., temephos) susceptibility using mosquito eggs collected from a susceptible lab strain and stored under optimal temperature and humidity conditions. After undergoing various quiescent periods (3, 7, 14, 28, 84, and 182 days), the experimental eggs as well as 7-day quiescent control eggs were hatched and reared to 3rd instar larvae. Temephos susceptibility was tested using the WHO bioassay procedure at lethal concentration (LC) 20, LC50, LC80, diagnostic dose (twice LC99), plus an untreated control. Each concentration dose was replicated four times with 20 larvae each. The 3-day experimental group was excluded from analysis because the mortality was significantly lower than the 7-day for both the experimental and control groups. The 3 day experimental eggs displayed decreased mortality which did not align with the hypothesis, as the quiescence period elongates under optimal conditions, susceptibility to insecticides decreases, and this could have likely resulted from unintentional selection for increased fitness and faster developing eggs because the larvae that developed to 3rd instar first were those used for larvicide testing. ANOVA testing demonstrates variability in the LC80 experimental group which suggests the need for further investigation into high dose temephos concentrations. For the experimental LC20 linear regression, there were significant differences in mortality. The results indicate mortality gradually decreases when the quiescence period elongates, therefore there are significant differences in insecticide susceptibility when quiescence is 182 days (or longer), compared to when quiescence is 7 days. Further investigation into field mosquito’s genetic diversity, insecticide resistance profile, and environmental conditions should be considered.

Date Created
2021-05
Agent

Plasmodium Cost of Resistance and Life Stage Development within the Mosquito Vector

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Description

Hundreds of thousands of people die annually from malaria; a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium is responsible for this mortality. The Plasmodium parasite undergoes several life stages within the mosquito vector, the transition between which require passage across the lumen

Hundreds of thousands of people die annually from malaria; a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium is responsible for this mortality. The Plasmodium parasite undergoes several life stages within the mosquito vector, the transition between which require passage across the lumen of the mosquito midgut. It has been observed that in about 15% of parasites that develop ookinetes in the mosquito abdomen, sporozoites never develop in the salivary glands, indicating that passage across the midgut lumen is a significant barrier in parasite development (Gamage-Mendis et al., 1993). We aim to investigate a possible correlation between passage through the midgut lumen and drug-resistance trends in Plasmodium falciparum parasites. This study contains a total of 1024 Anopheles mosquitoes: 187 Anopheles gambiae and 837 Anopheles funestus samples collected in high malaria transmission areas of Mozambique between March and June of 2016. Sanger sequencing will be used to determine the prevalence of known resistance alleles for anti-malarial drugs: chloroquine resistance transporter (pfcrt), multidrug resistance (pfmdr1) gene, dihydropteroate synthase (pfdhps) and dihydrofolate reductase (pfdhfr). We compare prevalence of resistance between abdomen and head/thorax in order to determine whether drug resistant parasites are disproportionately hindered during their passage through the midgut lumen. A statistically significant difference between resistance alleles in the two studied body sections supports the efficacy of new anti-malarial gene surveillance strategies in areas of high malaria transmission.

Date Created
2021-05
Agent