Random mating of natural Plasmodium populations demonstrated from individual oocysts.

DNA amplified from individual Plasmodium vivax oocysts, produced by feeding mosquitoes directly on naturally infected humans in Thailand, was used to study cross-mating of 2 polymorphs of the circumsporozoite (CS) gene, VK 210 and VK 247. Alleles were detected in matched blood parasites, sporozoites, and individual oocysts with oligoprobes specific to characteristic repeat units. Oocysts developing from 3 cases in which mixed alleles were present in the blood parasites had genotype frequencies, including hybrids, consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was apparently no barrier to hybridization of the 2 alleles nor a bias, as has been found in some laboratory experiments, favoring hybrid formation. These are the first measurements of cross-mating frequencies directly from natural Plasmodium infections and the first observations of genetic hybridization in P. vivax.

The number of sporozoites produced by individual malaria oocysts.

Mature oocysts of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax from western Thailand were separated from the midguts of Anopheles dirus by collagenase digestion, and the number of sporozoites contained in each was counted. For 26 P. vivax oocysts, the mean count was 3, 688 (range 1, 954-5, 577) and for 14 P. falciparum, the mean count was 3, 385 (range 1, 359-4, 554); a single P. cynomolgi oocyst contained 7, 521. Counts were not significantly correlated with oocyst density, oocyst age, or identity of the examiner. There may have been strain differences in fecundity, particularly between P. falciparum lines maintained in vitro. Mosquitoes receiving a second, uninfected blood meal seven days after feeding on P. vivax-infected volunteers developed no additional sporozoites per oocyst, but had salivary glands 3.4 times as infected. By calculation, more than 20% of P. vivax sporozoites released from oocysts subsequently invade the salivary glands.

Development of an ELISA to assess the potency of horse therapeutic antivenom against Thai cobra venom.

An ELISA for the quantitation of antibodies against Naja naja siamensis venom proteins has been developed for use as a possible replacement for the in vivo neutralization assay of antivenom potency. Comparison was made with three preparations of venom proteins as antigens of ELISA: these were the crude venom, a toxin fraction and the purified principle postsynaptic neurotoxin of the Thai cobra. Eight batches of horse monovalent therapeutic anti-cobra antivenom, one of which served as positive reference, were assayed by the ELISAs and also by the in vivo neutralization assay using mice. When crude venom, the toxin fraction and the pure neurotoxin were used as antigens in the ELISAs, the correlation coefficients between the ELISA antibody titers and in vivo neutralization of the antivenoms were 0.82 (P less than 0.005), 0.94 (P less than 0.001) and 0.95 (P less than 0.001), respectively. Thus, the ELISA which measures only the antibody against the principle toxin of the snake venom should be most suitable for use as an in vitro assay of antivenom potency. The ELISA should also be useful for potency assessment and standardization of antivenoms against other elapid snake venoms whose lethal components are small, poorly immunogenic peptides.