Ronald: A Domain-Specific Language to study the interactions between malaria infections and drug treatments

摘要

Malaria kills more than 1 million people a year, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. Antimalarial drug resistance is one of the greatest challenges facing malaria control today. We present Ronald, a Domain-Specific Language to model the fundamental forces driving antimalarial drug resistance including drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, drug regimens and parasite genotypes. Example of applications of this language include the study of the consequences of counterfeit or lower quality drugs, the implications of different dosage regimens, the impact of drug half life on the emerging and spread of resistance and the benefits and drawbacks of combination therapies, among many others.