Research Articles

Short report: failure to select for chloroquine- or mefloquine-resistant Plasmodium berghei through drug pressure in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes

We investigated whether chloroquine- or mefloquine-resistant Plasmodium berghei could be selected through drug pressure applied during continuous cyclical transmission in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were infected by feeding them on mice previously inoculated with a drug-sensitive clone of P. berghei ANKA. Mosquitoes ingested mefloquine or chloroquine with the infectious blood-meal, or by feeding on a drug-treated (uninfected) mouse 4 or 10 days after the infectious blood-meal. Twenty-two days after being infected, mosquitoes transmitted sporozoites to uninfected mice. Blood from these animals was used to infect naive mice that were then used to reinitiate the mouse/mosquito/mouse cycle. A total of 20 passages through mosquitoes were completed while under drug pressure. Drug-resistance levels were assessed in the initial clone and after 20 passages through mosquitoes. None of 18 "sub-clones" of parasites showed significant increases in chloroquine or mefloquine resistance, suggesting that exposure of sporogonic stage Plasmodium to chloroquine or mefloquine will not result in the development of drug resistance.