1. Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 alleles in settings with different levels of Plasmodium vivax co-endemicity in Ethiopia.
- Author
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Hailemeskel E, Menberu T, Shumie G, Behaksra S, Chali W, Keffale M, Belachew M, Shitaye G, Mohammed H, Abebe D, Ashine T, Drakeley C, Mamo H, Petros B, Bousema T, Tadesse FG, and Gadisa E
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Alleles, Antimalarials pharmacology, Antimalarials therapeutic use, Artemether, Lumefantrine Drug Combination pharmacology, Artemether, Lumefantrine Drug Combination therapeutic use, Child, Chloroquine pharmacology, Chloroquine therapeutic use, Drug Resistance, Endemic Diseases, Ethiopia epidemiology, Female, Haplotypes, Humans, Malaria, Falciparum complications, Malaria, Falciparum drug therapy, Malaria, Falciparum epidemiology, Malaria, Falciparum parasitology, Malaria, Vivax complications, Malaria, Vivax drug therapy, Malaria, Vivax epidemiology, Malaria, Vivax parasitology, Male, Plasmodium falciparum classification, Plasmodium falciparum physiology, Plasmodium vivax classification, Plasmodium vivax physiology, Point Mutation, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prevalence, Young Adult, Membrane Transport Proteins genetics, Multidrug Resistance-Associated Proteins genetics, Plasmodium falciparum genetics, Plasmodium vivax genetics, Protozoan Proteins genetics
- Abstract
Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax co-exist at different endemicity levels across Ethiopia. For over two decades Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL) is the first line treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum, while chloroquine (CQ) is still used to treat P. vivax. It is currently unclear whether a shift from CQ to AL for P. falciparum treatment has implications for AL efficacy and results in a reversal of mutations in genes associated to CQ resistance, given the high co-endemicity of the two species and the continued availability of CQ for the treatment of P. vivax. This study thus assessed the prevalence of Pfcrt-K76T and Pfmdr1-N86Y point mutations in P. falciparum. 18S RNA gene based nested PCR confirmed P. falciparum samples (N = 183) collected through community and health facility targeted cross-sectional surveys from settings with varying P. vivax and P. falciparum endemicity were used. The proportion of Plasmodium infections that were P. vivax was 62.2% in Adama, 41.4% in Babile, 30.0% in Benishangul-Gumuz to 6.9% in Gambella. The Pfcrt-76T mutant haplotype was observed more from samples with higher endemicity of P. vivax as being 98.4% (61/62), 100% (31/31), 65.2% (15/23) and 41.5% (22/53) in samples from Adama, Babile, Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambella, respectively. However, a relatively higher proportion of Pfmdr1-N86 allele (77.3-100%) were maintained in all sites. The observed high level of the mutant Pfcrt-76T allele in P. vivax co-endemic sites might require that utilization of CQ needs to be re-evaluated in settings co-endemic for the two species. A country-wide assessment is recommended to clarify the implication of the observed level of variation in drug resistance markers on the efficacy of AL-based treatment against uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2019
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