Scholars@Duke
Christine Markwalter

Christine Markwalter

Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Duke Global Health Institute
christine.markwalter@duke.edu
310 Trent Drive, Box 90519, Durham, NC 27710
310 Trent Drive, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Relationship between malaria vector survival, infectivity, and insecticide-treated net use in western Kenya.

Journal Article Parasit Vectors · November 12, 2024 BACKGROUND: Significant effort and resources have been invested to control malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, but it remains a major public health problem. For the parasite to be transmitted, the female Anopheles vector must survive 10-14 days fol ... Full text Link to item Cite

À la carte: how mosquitoes choose their blood meals.

Journal Article Trends in parasitology · July 2024 Mosquitoes are important vectors for human diseases, transmitting pathogens that cause a range of parasitic and viral infections. Mosquito blood-feeding is heterogeneous, meaning that some human hosts are at higher risk of receiving bites than others, and ... Full text Cite

Plasmodium falciparum infection in humans and mosquitoes influence natural Anopheline biting behavior and transmission.

Journal Article Nat Commun · May 30, 2024 The human infectious reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum is governed by transmission efficiency during vector-human contact and mosquito biting preferences. Understanding biting bias in a natural setting can help target interventions to interrupt transmissi ... Full text Link to item Cite

bistro: An R package for vector bloodmeal identification by short tandem repeat overlap.

Journal Article Methods Ecol Evol · February 2024 Measuring vector-human contact in a natural setting can inform precise targeting of interventions to interrupt transmission of vector-borne diseases. One approach is to directly match human DNA in vector bloodmeals to the individuals who were bitten using ... Full text Link to item Cite

Analytic optimization of Plasmodium falciparum marker gene haplotype recovery from amplicon deep sequencing of complex mixtures.

Journal Article PLOS Glob Public Health · 2024 Molecular epidemiologic studies of malaria parasites and other pathogens commonly employ amplicon deep sequencing (AmpSeq) of marker genes derived from dried blood spots (DBS) to answer public health questions related to topics such as transmission and dru ... Full text Link to item Cite

bistro: An R package for vector bloodmeal identification by short tandem repeat overlap.

Journal Article medRxiv · September 15, 2023 1. Measuring vector-human contact in a natural setting can inform precise targeting of interventions to interrupt transmission of vector-borne diseases. One approach is to directly match human DNA in vector bloodmeals to the individuals who were bitten usi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Symptomatic malaria enhances protection from reinfection with homologous Plasmodium falciparum parasites.

Journal Article PLoS Pathog · June 2023 A signature remains elusive of naturally-acquired immunity against Plasmodium falciparum. We identified P. falciparum in a 14-month cohort of 239 people in Kenya, genotyped at immunogenic parasite targets expressed in the pre-erythrocytic (circumsporozoite ... Full text Link to item Cite

Symptomatic malaria enhances protection from reinfection with homologous Plasmodium falciparum parasites.

Journal Article medRxiv · January 5, 2023 A signature remains elusive of naturally-acquired immunity against Plasmodium falciparum . We identified P. falciparum in a 14-month cohort of 239 people in Kenya, genotyped at immunogenic parasite targets expressed in the pre-erythrocytic (circumsporozoit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Temporal Dynamics of Subclinical Malaria in Different Transmission Zones of Myanmar.

Journal Article The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · July 2022 Countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion have committed to eliminate Plasmodium falciparum malaria by 2025. Subclinical malaria infections that can be detected by highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in asymptomatic individuals represe ... Full text Cite

Plasmodium falciparum importation does not sustain malaria transmission in a semi-arid region of Kenya.

Journal Article PLOS Glob Public Health · 2022 Human movement impacts the spread and transmission of infectious diseases. Recently, a large reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum malaria was identified in a semi-arid region of northwestern Kenya historically considered unsuitable for malaria transmission. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antibody signatures of asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum malaria infections measured from dried blood spots.

Journal Article Malar J · September 23, 2021 BACKGROUND: Screening malaria-specific antibody responses on protein microarrays can help identify immune factors that mediate protection against malaria infection, disease, and transmission, as well as markers of past exposure to both malaria parasites an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Direct Comparison of Standard and Ultrasensitive PCR for the Detection of Plasmodium falciparum from Dried Blood Spots in Bagamoyo, Tanzania.

Journal Article The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · February 2021 Ultrasensitive PCR used in low-transmission malaria-endemic settings has revealed a much higher burden of asymptomatic infections than that detected by rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) or standard PCR, but there is limited evidence as to whether this is the c ... Full text Cite

An antibody-free dual-biomarker rapid enrichment workflow (AnDREW) improves the sensitivity of malaria rapid diagnostic tests.

Journal Article Analytical biochemistry · January 2021 Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are critical to the success of malaria elimination campaigns. These tests are rapid, user-friendly, and field-deployable to resource-limited regions. However, RDTs demonstrate poor sensitivity because they can only tolerate a ... Full text Cite

Sensitive diagnostic tools and targeted drug administration strategies are needed to eliminate schistosomiasis.

Journal Article The Lancet. Infectious diseases · July 2020 Although preventive chemotherapy has been instrumental in reducing schistosomiasis incidence worldwide, serious challenges remain. These problems include the omission of certain groups from campaigns of mass drug administration, the existence of persistent ... Full text Cite

Artemether-Lumefantrine and Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine Retain High Efficacy for Treatment of Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Myanmar.

Journal Article The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · March 2020 The emergence of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in the Greater Mekong Subregion threatens both the efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), the first-line treatment for malaria, and prospects for malaria elimination. Mon ... Full text Cite

Inorganic Complexes and Metal-Based Nanomaterials for Infectious Disease Diagnostics.

Journal Article Chemical reviews · January 2019 Infectious diseases claim millions of lives each year. Robust and accurate diagnostics are essential tools for identifying those who are at risk and in need of treatment in low-resource settings. Inorganic complexes and metal-based nanomaterials continue t ... Full text Cite

Poly(amidoamine)-coated magnetic particles for enhanced detection of Schistosoma circulating anodic antigen in endemic urine samples.

Journal Article The Analyst · December 2018 Accurate and sensitive point-of-care diagnostic tools are critical for schistosomiasis control and elimination. The existing ultrasensitive lateral flow assay for the detection of Schistosoma circulating anodic antigen (CAA) has demonstrated excellent sens ... Full text Cite

Evidence for histidine-rich protein 2 immune complex formation in symptomatic patients in Southern Zambia.

Journal Article Malaria journal · July 2018 BackgroundRapid diagnostic tests based on histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) detection are the primary tools used to detect Plasmodium falciparum malaria infections. Recent conflicting reports call into question whether α-HRP2 antibodies are present ... Full text Cite

Characterization of Plasmodium Lactate Dehydrogenase and Histidine-Rich Protein 2 Clearance Patterns via Rapid On-Bead Detection from a Single Dried Blood Spot.

Journal Article The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · May 2018 A rapid, on-bead enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) and Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) was adapted for use with dried blood spot (DBS) samples. This assay detected both ... Full text Cite

Biolayer interferometry predicts ELISA performance of monoclonal antibody pairs for Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 2.

Journal Article Analytical biochemistry · October 2017 Predicting antibody pair performance in a sandwich format streamlines development of antibody-based diagnostics and laboratory research tools, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs). We have evaluated panel ... Full text Cite

Plasmodium falciparum HRP2 ELISA for analysis of dried blood spot samples in rural Zambia.

Journal Article Malaria journal · August 2017 BackgroundDried blood spots are commonly used for sample collection in clinical and non-clinical settings. This method is simple, and biomolecules in the samples remain stable for months at room temperature. In the field, blood samples for the stu ... Full text Cite

Application of mass transfer theory to biomarker capture by surface functionalized magnetic beads in microcentrifuge tubes.

Journal Article Advances in colloid and interface science · August 2017 In many diagnostic assays, specific biomarker extraction and purification from a patient sample is performed in microcentrifuge tubes using surface-functionalized magnetic beads. Although assay binding times are known to be highly dependent on sample visco ... Full text Cite

Simultaneous capture and sequential detection of two malarial biomarkers on magnetic microparticles.

Journal Article Talanta · December 2016 We have developed a rapid magnetic microparticle-based detection strategy for malarial biomarkers Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) and Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein II (PfHRPII). In this assay, magnetic particles functionalized with a ... Full text Cite

Immunomagnetic capture and colorimetric detection of malarial biomarker Plasmodium falciparum lactate dehydrogenase.

Journal Article Analytical biochemistry · January 2016 We report a sensitive, magnetic bead-based colorimetric assay for Plasmodium falciparum lactate dehydrogenase (PfLDH) in which the biomarker is extracted from parasitized whole blood and purified based on antigen binding to antibody-functionalized magnetic ... Full text Cite

Iridium(III) Luminescent Probe for Detection of the Malarial Protein Biomarker Histidine Rich Protein-II.

Journal Article Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · July 2015 This work outlines the synthesis of a non-emissive, cyclometalated Ir(III) complex, Ir(ppy)2(H2O)2(+) (Ir1), which elicits a rapid, long-lived phosphorescent signal when coordinated to a histidine-containing protein immobilized on the surface of a magnetic ... Full text Cite