Nowhere to hide: interrogating different metabolic parameters of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes in a transmission blocking drug discovery pipeline towards malaria elimination

Table 2 Performance indicators of various gametocytocidal assay platforms

Assay performance parameters (avg)	ATP	pLDH	PrestoBlue^®	Luciferase
Assay performance parameters (avg)	(n = 4)	(n = 4)	(n = 4)	(n = 4)
S/N	>15 000	>300	>900	16 000 (early)
S/N	>15 000	>300	>900	500 (late)
S/B	500	3.2	15	175
Z’-factor (avg)	0.79	0.87	0.91	0.81
%CV (intra-assay)	8.8 %	2.4 %	3.15 %	0.73 %
Avg DHA activity at 1 μM (% inhibition)	37.19 ± 7.67 %	62 ± 6 %	83.48 ± 8.58 %	73.56 ± 5.58 % (avg early/late)
IC₅₀ DHA	14.9 μM^a	20 nM	11 nM	43 nM (early)
IC₅₀ DHA	14.9 μM^a	20 nM	11 nM	11 nM (late)
IC₅₀ MB	900 nM^a	800 nM	-	195 nM (early)
IC₅₀ MB	900 nM^a	800 nM	-	143 nM (late)

DHA Dihydroartemisinin, MB Methylene blue
^aunpaired experiments at 24 h
Each assay was performed after 48 h drug exposure and comparative quality control parameters determined, utilising standardization of DHA activity as common factor between all the assay platforms. Methylene blue interferes with the PrestoBlue^® assay and was not used as control. Data are from 4 independent experiments (performed in triplicate) for each assay platform

ISSN: 1475-2875