Contemporary exploitation of natural products for arthropod-borne pathogen transmission-blocking interventions

An integrated approach to innovatively counter the transmission of various arthropod-borne diseases to humans would benefit from strategies that sustainably limit onward passage of infective life cycle stages of pathogens and parasites to the insect vectors and vice versa. Aiming to accelerate the impetus towards a disease-free world amid the challenges posed by climate change, discovery, mindful exploitation and integration of active natural products in design of pathogen transmission-blocking interventions is of high priority. Herein, we provide a review of natural compounds endowed with blockade potential against transmissible forms of human pathogens reported in the last 2 decades from 2000 to 2021. Finally, we propose various translational strategies that can exploit these pathogen transmission-blocking natural products into design of novel and sustainable disease control interventions. In summary, tapping these compounds will potentially aid in integrated combat mission to reduce disease transmission trends. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-022-05367-8.