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Using Plasmodium vivax genetic data to estimate the cause of recurrent vivax malaria

Project description

Plasmodium vivax genetic data analysis to understand vivax malaria

Malaria affects millions of people each year, with Plasmodium vivax posing a particular challenge due to its ability to remain dormant in the patient and cause relapse. Recurrent malaria can also result from insufficient treatment (recrudescence) or new infections. Understanding these causes is crucial for effective treatment, yet no direct diagnostic methods currently exist. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PvRecur project will develop Pv3R, a tool designed to analyse P. vivax genetic data and estimate the probabilities of relapse, recrudescence and reinfection. This tool will help assess the burden of relapse and its impact on transmission. The project will also gather together P. vivax genetic data and develop advanced statistical methods to identify the causes of recurrent infections.

Objective

Malaria infects hundreds of millions of people year on year. The WHO is committed to a world ultimately free of malaria. Of the two most important causes of malaria, Plasmodium vivax is the most difficult to eliminate largely because it has the capacity to relapse: causing recurrent malaria via the activation of latent liver-stage parasites. Recurrent malaria can also be caused by the failure to treat a previous blood-stage infection (recrudescence) and, in endemic settings, new infectious mosquito bites (reinfection). Knowing the cause of recurrent malaria is key to understanding malaria epidemiology and to providing efficacious treatment. For example, to evaluate the efficacy of a drug designed to kill P. vivax liver-stage parasites in an endemic setting, reinfections and recrudescence must be separated from relapses. However, there are no direct ways to diagnose the cause of recurrent malaria. To address this problem, I aim to build a tool (Pv3R) that uses Plasmodium vivax genetic data to estimate the probability of Relapse, Recrudescence and Reinfection, and use Pv3R to estimate the burden of relapse and its contribution to transmission, thereby validating Pv3R’s utility. I will achieve my objectives by merging my existing expertise in statistical malaria genetics with the expertise of Dr Michael White and his lab, its ties with field-based P. vivax epidemiology and its capacity to generate P. vivax genetic data. Working with Dr White, I will develop a state-of-the-art statistical inference method to tackle the challenging unsolved problem of differentiating between the causes of recurrent P. vivax. This will generate knowledge that directly improves our understanding of P. vivax epidemiology and, most long-lastingly, a public health resource (Pv3R) that can be used sustainably by the malaria community to generate more epidemiological knowledge and to guide the design of more effective treatment regimens needed for P. vivax control and elimination.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

INSTITUT PASTEUR
Net EU contribution
€ 211 754,88
Address
RUE DU DOCTEUR ROUX 25-28
75724 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost
No data