ArticlePLoS pathogens2017
Probability of Transmission of Malaria from Mosquito to Human Is Regulated by Mosquito Parasite Density in Naïve and Vaccinated Hosts.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 152 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reproducibility of malaria sporozoite challenge model in humans for evaluating efficacy of vaccines and drugs: a systematic review.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Controlled Human Malaria Infection with Graded Numbers ofThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2018Trial
- DSM265 for Plasmodium falciparum chemoprophylaxis: a randomised, double blinded, phase 1 trial with controlled human malaria infection.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2017Trial
- Modelling the impact of mosquito bed net utilization on malaria transmission and evolution of pyrethroid resistance.PloS one · 2026Article
- Towards an evolutionary baseline model ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Evaluation ofiScience · 2025Article
- Influence of biophysical and biochemical cues on Plasmodium sporozoite dynamics in skin tissue.Parasites & vectors · 2025Review
- Time-of-day of infection: impact on liver stage malaria parasites in untreated and drug-treated hosts.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- The burden and diagnostic challenges of subclinical Plasmodium falciparum infections in Southern Ghana.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Assessing the Feasibility of Using a Multiplex Serological Assay to Conduct Serosurveillance for Malaria Exposure in Deployed Military Personnel.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Malaria Vectors andTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2024Article
- High-Throughput Screening System Evaluation ofInsects · 2024Article
- The influence of oviposition status on measures of transmission potential in malaria-infected mosquitoes depends on sugar availability.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Quantification of sporozoite expelling byeLife · 2024Article
- Establishing RTS,S/AS01 as a benchmark for comparison to next-generation malaria vaccines in a mouse model.NPJ vaccines · 2024Article
- Hyper-diverse antigenic variation and resilience to transmission-reducing intervention in falciparum malaria.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- An immune memory-structured SIS epidemiological model for hyperdiverse pathogens.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Testing a non-destructive assay to track Plasmodium sporozoites in mosquitoes over time.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Mosquito bites and stage-specific antibody responses against Plasmodium falciparum in southern Ghana.Malaria journal · 2023Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Over a century since Ronald Ross discovered that malaria is caused by the bite of an infectious mosquito it is still unclear how the number of parasites injected influences disease transmission. Currently it is assumed that all mosquitoes with salivary gland sporozoites are equally infectious irrespective of the number of parasites they harbour, though this has never been rigorously tested. Here we analyse >1000 experimental infections of humans and mice and demonstrate a dose-dependency for probability of infection and the length of the host pre-patent period. Mosquitoes with a higher numbers of sporozoites in their salivary glands following blood-feeding are more likely to have caused infection (and have done so quicker) than mosquitoes with fewer parasites. A similar dose response for the probability of infection was seen for humans given a pre-erythrocytic vaccine candidate targeting circumsporozoite protein (CSP), and in mice with and without transfusion of anti-CSP antibodies. These interventions prevented infection more efficiently from bites made by mosquitoes with fewer parasites. The importance of parasite number has widespread implications across malariology, ranging from our basic understanding of the parasite, how vaccines are evaluated and the way in which transmission should be measured in the field. It also provides direct evidence for why the only registered malaria vaccine RTS,S was partially effective in recent clinical trials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.