# Research Project 1:  Epidemiology of malaria species and their natural history in human hosts

> **NIH NIH U19** · COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $249,870

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT: Burkina Faso ICEMR Research Project 1
Burkina Faso has the 6th highest mortality and morbidity from malaria despite aggressive multifaceted control
interventions including rapid diagnosis and treatment, bed nets, indoor residual spraying, intermittent preventive
treatment in pregnancy, and seasonal malaria chemoprevention. While Plasmodium falciparum continues to be
the focus of control programs and most clinical and epidemiologic studies, our group, and others, have gathered
data from several settings across sub-Saharan Africa, including from Burkina Faso, demonstrating a notable
prevalence of non-falciparum mono- and mixed infections that is persistent and robust. In particular, Plasmodium
malariae, with its longer 72-hour life cycle, and P. ovale, with its dormant hypnozoite stages, both tend to maintain
low parasite densities, go undetected with current point-of-care diagnostics, and are undertreated due, in part,
to a lack of evidence regarding their sensitivity to currently utilized antimalarials. In addition, due to insensitivity
of current diagnostics, our understanding of their dynamics and multi-species interactions in the host remain
largely unstudied using state-of-the-art molecular tools. Through our project, and synergy with the rest of the
Burkina Faso ICEMR, we will leverage a novel surveillance approach, known as xenosurveillance, to first
characterize the epidemiology of all human species via testing of mosquito blood meals. Following this initial
spatiotemporal analysis of parasite and vector diversity throughout three distinct ecozones in Burkina Faso, we
will select a subset of sites in each zone to conduct longitudinal household-based cohorts over three years. The
goal of these studies will be to carefully characterize the epidemiology and clinical impact of mono- and mixed
species infections and to understand the performance of current diagnostics for detecting the symptomatic and
asymptomatic reservoir of infection. We will utilize samples from these cohort to further elucidate the population
structure of circulating Plasmodium species, and characterize their ex vivo and genetic resistance profiles to
current and promising antimalarials. Our ultimate goal is to create a sustainable multidisciplinary malaria
surveillance system across the Sahel, Sudan-Sahel, and Sudan regions of Burkina Faso that simultaneously
characterizes vector, host and parasite epidemiology, with explicit inclusion of all human parasite species in
circulation, and through synergy with Project 2 of the ICEMR, to characterize the role of primary and secondary
vectors in perpetuating this complex multi-species malaria transmission cycle.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10837565
- **Project number:** 1U19AI181595-01
- **Recipient organization:** COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jean Bosco OUEDRAOGO
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $249,870
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-04-26 → 2029-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10837565

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10837565, Research Project 1:  Epidemiology of malaria species and their natural history in human hosts (1U19AI181595-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10837565. Licensed CC0.

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