Assessment of the drugability of initial malaria infection through miniaturized sporozoite assays and high-throughput screening

The sporozoite stages of malaria parasites are the primary cause of infection of the vertebrate host and are targeted by (experimental) vaccines. Yet, little is known about their susceptibility to chemical intervention. Phenotypic high-throughput screens have not been feasible due to a lack of in vitro systems. Here we tested 78 marketed and experimental antimalarial compounds in miniaturized assays addressing sporozoite viability, gliding motility, hepatocyte traversal, and intrahepatocytic schizogony. None potently interfered with sporozoite viability or motility but ten compounds acted at the level of schizogony with IC50s