Malaria parasite population structure and adaptation on the edge of endemic distribution in Africa

我们的目标是了解如何更好地控制世界上最弱势群体之一的疟疾。在撒哈拉以南非洲西北部的毛里塔尼亚进行的医学研究很少，但我们掌握的信息表明，疟疾是该国大多数人口居住的整个南部地区的一个问题——该国北部大部分地区是撒哈拉沙漠。但是，通过适当的努力，这种疾病可能会得到有效控制，甚至可能在长期内消除。在紧靠南部的国家，特别是冈比亚和塞内加尔，最近干预措施的扩大与疟疾的显著下降同时发生。尽管毛里塔尼亚的控制可能落后，但它的情况是，蚊子传播的季节很短，如果采取正确的方法，寄生虫可能被消灭。伦敦卫生和热带医学学院和毛里塔尼亚国家公共卫生研究所的研究小组正计划与哈佛大学、英国威康信托基金会桑格研究所以及邻国塞内加尔的合作者一起使用最先进的基因组学和细胞培养方法。了解寄生虫种群，以及它们如何适应抗疟疾药物，并在大多数人对感染缺乏免疫力的人群中侵入红细胞。这一认识可能有助于针对毛里塔尼亚的特定地区进行有针对性的干预，也有助于设计一种疫苗，这种疫苗可以诱导对入侵红细胞的寄生虫产生免疫。

We aim to know how to better control malaria in one of the most disadvantaged populations of the world. There is very little medical research conducted in Mauritania, in the north western part of sub-Saharan Africa, but the information we have indicates that malaria is a problem throughout the south of the country where most of the population live - most of the north of the country is Saharan desert. However, the disease could probably be effectively controlled and possibly even eliminated in the long-term with appropriate efforts. In countries immediately to the south, particularly in The Gambia and Senegal, recent scale up of interventions has coincided with a significant decline in malaria. Although control in Mauritania may have lagged behind it is in a situation with only a short season of mosquito transmission where the parasites might be eliminated given the right approach. The investigating team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the National Institute of Public Health Research in Mauritania are planning to use state of the art genomics and cell culture methods along with collaborators at Harvard University and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK as well as in neighbouring Senegal, to understand the parasite populations and how they adapt to antimalarial drugs and invade red cells in a population where most people have little immunity to the infection. This understanding may help target interventions to particular parts of Mauritania and also help in the design of a vaccine that could induce immunity against the stage of the parasite that invades red cells.