Experimental Study on Plasmodium berghei, Anopheles Stephensi , and BALB/c Mouse System: Implications for Malaria Transmission Blocking Assays

Plasmodium berghei is a rodent malaria parasite and has been very valuable
means in the progress of our understanding of the essential molecular and cellular biology
of the malaria parasites. Availability of hosts such as mice and vectors such as Anopheles
stephensi has made this parasite a suitable system to study the parasite-host and vectorparasite
relationships.
Methods: This study was performed at Medical Entomology and Parasitology laboratories
of the School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016.
The investigation was carried out to describe life cycle and parameters influencing
maintenance of the parasite within the mice or the mosquito.
Results: Results have revealed details and addressed some parameters and points influence
maintenance of various life stages of the parasite including merozoites,
macrogametocytes, ookinetes, oocysts and sporozoites in the laboratory model P. berghei–
A. stephensi-BALB/c mouse. Injection of fresh infected blood results in higher
gametocytemia in the animals. The more injected parasites result in earlier and higher
parasitemia and exfelagellation centers in the mice blood. However, the highest number
of infected mosquitoes and oocysts formation were observed when the parasitemia and
exflagellation centers per microscopic field were 9% and 3.6 in the infected mice respectively.
The infected mosquitoes should be maintained on 8% (w/v) fructose, 0.05%
(w/v) PABA at 20±1 °C and 50%-80% relative humidity.
Conclusion: This study helps to understand the biology of vertebrate-parasite and mosquito-
malaria interactions that may aid in the development of a new generation of
drug/vaccine and vector-based measures for malaria control.