A dynamic stress model explains the delayed drug effect in artemisinin treatment of Plasmodium falciparum

Artemisinin resistance constitutes a major threat to the continued success of control programs for malaria. With alternative antimalarial drugs not yet available, improving our understanding of how artemisinin-based drugs act and how resistance manifests is essential to enable optimisation of dosing regimens in order to prolong the lifespan of current first-line treatment options. Here, through introduction of a novel model of the dynamics of the parasites' response to drug, we explore how artemisinin-based therapies may be adjusted to maintain efficacy and how artemisinin resistance may manifest and be overcome.

We introduce a dynamic mathematical model, extending on the traditional pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic framework, to capture the time-dependent development of a stress response in parasites. We fit the model to in vitro data and establish that the parasites' stress response explains the recently identified complex interplay between drug concentration, exposure time and parasite viability. Our model demonstrates that the previously reported hypersensitivity of early ring stage parasites of the 3D7 strain to dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is primarily due to the rapid development of stress, rather than any change in the maximum achievable killing rate.

Of direct clinical relevance, we demonstrate that the complex temporal features of artemisinin action observed in vitro have a significant impact on predictions of in vivo parasite clearance using PK-PD models. Given the important role that such models play in the design and evaluation of clinical trials for alternative drug dosing regimens, our model contributes an enhanced predictive platform for the continued efforts to minimise the burden of malaria.