Busula Annette O, Bousema Teun, Mweresa Collins K, Masiga Daniel, Logan James G, Sauerwein Robert W, Verhulst Niels O, Takken Willem, de Boer Jetske G
Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University.
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi.
J Infect Dis. 2017 Aug 1;216(3):291-295. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jix214.
It has been suggested that Plasmodia manipulate their vertebrate hosts to enhance parasite transmission. Using a dual-choice olfactometer, we investigated the attraction of Anopheles gambiae to 50 Kenyan children (aged 5-12 years) who were naturally infected with Plasmodium falciparum or noninfected controls. Microscopic gametocyte carriers attracted almost 2 times more mosquitoes than children who were parasite free, harbored asexual stages, or had gametocytes at submicroscopic densities. By using highly sensitive stage-specific molecular methods to detect P. falciparum, we show that gametocytes-and not their noninfectious asexual progenitors-induce increased attractiveness of humans to mosquitoes. Our findings therefore support the parasite host manipulation hypothesis.
有人提出疟原虫会操纵其脊椎动物宿主以增强寄生虫传播。我们使用双选嗅觉仪，研究了冈比亚按蚊对50名自然感染恶性疟原虫的肯尼亚儿童（5至12岁）或未感染的对照组儿童的吸引力。与未感染寄生虫、携带无性阶段寄生虫或配子体密度处于亚显微水平的儿童相比，显微镜下检测到配子体的携带者吸引的蚊子数量几乎多两倍。通过使用高度敏感的阶段特异性分子方法检测恶性疟原虫，我们发现是配子体——而非其无感染性的无性后代——导致人类对蚊子的吸引力增加。因此，我们的研究结果支持寄生虫宿主操纵假说。
