Abstract
Artemisinin resistance constitutes a major threat to the continued success of control programs for malaria, particularly in light of developing resistance to partner drugs. Improving our understanding of how artemisinin-based drugs act and how resistance manifests is essential for the optimisation of dosing regimens and the development of strategies to prolong the lifespan of current first-line treatment options. Recent short drug-pulse in vitro experiments have shown that the parasite killing rate depends not only on drug concentration but also the exposure time, challenging the standard pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic(PK-PD) paradigm in which the killing rate depends only on drug concentration. Here we introduce a “dynamic stress” model of parasite killing and show through application to 3D7 laboratory strain viability data that the inclusion of a time-dependent parasite stress response dramatically improves the model’s explanatory power compared to a traditional PK-PD model. Our model demonstrates that the previously reported hypersensitivity of early ring stage parasites of the 3D7 strain to dihydroartemisinin compared to other parasite stages is primarily due to a faster development of stress, rather than a higher maximum achievable killing rate. We also perform in vivo simulations using the dynamic stress model and demonstrate that the complex temporal features of artemisinin action observed in vitro have a significant impact on predictions for in vivo parasite clearance. Given the important role that PK-PD models play in the design of clinical trials for the evaluation of alternative drug dosing regimens, our novel model will contribute to the further development and improvement of antimalarial therapies.