Download Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3 now!
Steffen Borrmann
gmail [dot] com Research
Research area: Epidemiology of drug-parasite and host-parasite interactions
Antimalarial drug resistance remains the most important roadblock to successful control of malaria control and ultimately, its elimination. The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, a unicellular eukaryote transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, has developed high levels of resistance to 4 of the major 5 classes of antimalarial drugs. Led by the World Health Organization, global and national malaria control programs currently rest on the sustained efficacy of a single class of drugs, the artemisinins. When given in combination these rapidly eliminated drugs are highly active, able to reduces parasite densities in human infections by a rate of 10-4/24 hours and through the added effects of the long half-life companion drugs, suppress recrudescence rates to less than 5% using therapeutic doses. Disturbingly, recent reports from South East Asia have described dramatically drops in initial parasitological responses to treatment (particularly informative because of their measurement at a time of peak drug plasma concentrations) and failure rates have reached 40% in some parts of Cambodia.Our own observations from a long-term prospective population-based study of artemisinin-based combinations in Kilifi suggest that parasite resistance to the artemisinin class of drugs is also emerging in East Africa. For devising and implementing a successful strategy for containing emerging artemisinin resistance it will be important to (a) define an informative in vitro phenotype, (b) identify molecular determinants of resistance ((and validate their usefulness for detecting and mapping geographical trends)), and (c) distinguish between spread or multiple origins of postulated heritable determinants of parasite resistance to artemisinins. The answer to the latter question will be particularly important for the coordination of regional containment efforts. From a general perspective, this project will tie in the long-term goal to contribute to global efforts for studying phenotypic/genotypic diversity of natural parasite populations.
Collaborations
Publications
1. Lell B, Faucher J-F, Missinou MA, Borrmann S, Dangelmaier O, Horton J and Kremsner, PG. Malaria chemoprophylaxis with tafenoquine: a randomized study. Lancet. 2000; 355:2041-5.
2. Borrmann S, Szlezák N, Faucher J-F, Matsiegui P-B, Neubauer R, Binder RK, Lell B and Kremsner PG. Artesunate and praziquantel for the treatment of Schistosoma haematobium infections: a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2001; 184:1363-6.
3. Oguariri RM, Borrmann S, Klinkert MQ, Kremsner PG, Kun JF. High prevalence of human antibodies to recombinant Duffy binding-like alpha domains of the Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocyte membrane protein 1 in semi-immune adults compared to that in nonimmune children. Infection and Immunity. 2001; 69:7603-9.
4. Adjuik M, Agnamey P, Babiker A, Borrmann S, Brasseur P, Cisse M, Cobelens F, Diallo S, Faucher JF, Garner P, Gikunda S, Kremsner PG, Krishna S, Lell B, Loolpapit M, Matsiegui P-B, Missinou MA, Mwanza J, Ntoumi F, Olliaro P, Osimbo P, Rezbach P, Some E and Taylor WRJ. Amodiaquine-artesunate versus amodiaquine for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in African children: a randomised, multicentre trial. Lancet. 2002; 359:1365-1371.
5. Binder RK, Borrmann S, Adegnika AA, Missinou MA, Kremsner PG, Kun JF. Polymorphisms in the parasite genes for pfcrt and pfmdr-1 as molecular markers for chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum in Lambaréné, Gabon. Parasitology Research. 2002; 88:475-6.
6. van den Biggelaar AH, Borrmann S, Kremsner P, Yazdanbakhsh M. Immune responses induced by repeated treatment do not result in protective immunity to Schistosoma haematobium: interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-10 responses. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2002; 186:1474-82.
7. Borrmann S, Szlezák N, Binder R, Missinou MA, Lell B and Kremsner PG. Evidence for the efficacy of artesunate in Plasmodium malariae infections. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 2002; 50:751-4.
8. Bongartz M, Rezbach P, Borrmann S, Hollingdale MR, Kremsner PG, Luty AJ. Age-dependent enhancement of IFN-gamma responses to Plasmodium falciparum liver stage antigen-1 T cell epitopes. Parasitology Research. 2002; 88:1083-9.
9. Missinou M, Borrmann S, Schindler A, Issifou S, Adegnika AA, Matsiegui PB, Binder RK, Lell B and Kremsner PG. Fosmidomycin for malaria. Lancet. 2002; 360:1941-2.
10. Borrmann S, Adegnika AA, Missinou MA, Binder RK, Issifou S, Schindler A, Matsiegui PB, Krishna S and Kremsner PG. Short-course artesunate treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Gabon. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2002; 47:901-4.