Estimation of parasite age and synchrony status in Plasmodium falciparum infections

Human malaria parasites have complex but poorly understood population dynamics inside their human host. In some but not all infections, parasites progress synchronously through the 48 h lifecycle following erythrocyte invasion, such that at any one time there is a limited spread of parasites at a particular time (hours) post-invasion. Patients presenting with older parasites, and with asynchronous infections, have been reported to have higher risks of fatal outcomes, associated with higher parasite biomass and multiplication rates respectively. However, practical tools to assess synchrony and estimate parasite age post-invasion in patient samples are lacking. We have developed a novel method based on three genes differentially expressed over the parasite intra-erythrocytic lifecycle, and applied it to samples from patients with uncomplicated malaria attending two health clinics in Ghana. We found that most patients presented with synchronous infections, and with parasites within 12 h of erythrocyte invasion. Finally we investigated if clinical features such as fever and parasite density could act as predictors of parasite age and synchrony. The new method is a simple and practicable approach to study parasite dynamics in naturally-infected patients, and is a significant improvement on the subjective microscopical methods for parasite staging in vivo, aiding patient management.