A cell-level dynamical model for malaria parasite infection with antimalarial drug treatment

Abstract

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by intracellular parasites of the genus Plasmodium. It is a major health problem around the world. In this study, a cell-level mathematical model of malaria parasites with antimalarial drug treatments is formulated and analyzed. The model consists of seven compartments for cell populations. We analyzed the qualitative behavior of the model using various techniques. The stability analysis of the parasite-free equilibrium is obtained, whereas it is locally and globally stable if the basic reproduction number R0<1. The parasite persistence equilibrium point exists, and it is locally asymptotically stable if R0>1. The sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number is computed, and the results show that the infection rate of the erythrocyte by merozoites, the average number of merozoites per ruptured infected erythrocyte cells, the natural death rate of merozoites, and the requirement rate of the uninfected erythrocyte are the most influential parameters within-host dynamics of malaria infection. Different numerical simulations are performed to supplement our analytical findings. The effect of primary tissue schizontocides, blood schizontocides, and gametocytocides on infected hepatocytes, infected erythrocytes, and gametocytes have been investigated, respectively. Finally, some counterplots are presented in order to investigate the impact of parameters on the basic reproduction number. The in-host basic reproduction number decreases as the antimalarial treatment administration increases. Therefore, increasing antimalarial treatment administration is the best way to mitigate the in-host malaria infection.