Malaria Parasite Clearance: What Are We Really Measuring?

The Interdisciplinary Approaches to Malaria Consortium

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005

Malaria Parasite Clearance: What Are We Really Measuring?

The Interdisciplinary Approaches to Malaria Consortium

Global and Tropical Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Antimalarial drugs are vital for treating malaria and controlling transmission. Measuring drug efficacy in the field requires large clinical trials and thus we have identified proxy measures of drug efficacy such as the parasite clearance curve. This is often assumed to measure the rate of drug activity against parasites and is used to predict optimal treatment regimens required to completely clear a blood-stage infection. We discuss evidence that the clearance curve is not measuring the rate of drug killing. This has major implications for how we assess optimal treatment regimens, as well as how we prioritise new drugs in the drug development pipeline.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	413-426
Number of pages	14
Journal	Trends in Parasitology
Volume	36
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005
Publication status	Published - May 2020

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10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005

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title = "Malaria Parasite Clearance: What Are We Really Measuring?",

abstract = "Antimalarial drugs are vital for treating malaria and controlling transmission. Measuring drug efficacy in the field requires large clinical trials and thus we have identified proxy measures of drug efficacy such as the parasite clearance curve. This is often assumed to measure the rate of drug activity against parasites and is used to predict optimal treatment regimens required to completely clear a blood-stage infection. We discuss evidence that the clearance curve is not measuring the rate of drug killing. This has major implications for how we assess optimal treatment regimens, as well as how we prioritise new drugs in the drug development pipeline.",

keywords = "drug development, drug efficacy, malaria, parasite clearance, viability",

author = "Khoury, {David S.} and Zaloumis, {Sophie G.} and Grigg, {Matthew J.} and Ashraful Haque and Davenport, {Miles P.} and {The Interdisciplinary Approaches to Malaria Consortium}",

year = "2020",

month = may,

doi = "10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005",

language = "English",

volume = "36",

pages = "413--426",

journal = "Trends in Parasitology",

issn = "1471-4922",

publisher = "Elsevier",

number = "5",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Malaria Parasite Clearance

T2 - What Are We Really Measuring?

AU - Khoury, David S.

AU - Zaloumis, Sophie G.

AU - Grigg, Matthew J.

AU - Haque, Ashraful

AU - Davenport, Miles P.

AU - The Interdisciplinary Approaches to Malaria Consortium

PY - 2020/5

Y1 - 2020/5

N2 - Antimalarial drugs are vital for treating malaria and controlling transmission. Measuring drug efficacy in the field requires large clinical trials and thus we have identified proxy measures of drug efficacy such as the parasite clearance curve. This is often assumed to measure the rate of drug activity against parasites and is used to predict optimal treatment regimens required to completely clear a blood-stage infection. We discuss evidence that the clearance curve is not measuring the rate of drug killing. This has major implications for how we assess optimal treatment regimens, as well as how we prioritise new drugs in the drug development pipeline.

AB - Antimalarial drugs are vital for treating malaria and controlling transmission. Measuring drug efficacy in the field requires large clinical trials and thus we have identified proxy measures of drug efficacy such as the parasite clearance curve. This is often assumed to measure the rate of drug activity against parasites and is used to predict optimal treatment regimens required to completely clear a blood-stage infection. We discuss evidence that the clearance curve is not measuring the rate of drug killing. This has major implications for how we assess optimal treatment regimens, as well as how we prioritise new drugs in the drug development pipeline.

KW - drug development

KW - drug efficacy

KW - malaria

KW - parasite clearance

KW - viability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082007580&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005

DO - 10.1016/j.pt.2020.02.005

M3 - Review article

C2 - 32298629

AN - SCOPUS:85082007580

SN - 1471-4922

VL - 36

SP - 413

EP - 426

JO - Trends in Parasitology

JF - Trends in Parasitology

IS - 5

ER -

Malaria Parasite Clearance: What Are We Really Measuring?

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